She lives
by Shhh-Its-An-Alias
Summary: She was never meant to live, they were never meant to fall in love, he was never meant to find her and nothing after that what meant to happen. An impossible love story that breaks hearts over and over. femme-slash from early chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Okay guys, so this is the only story I've ever written with the intention of it lasting more than a chapter. Let me know what you think.

Denny

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The battle of wits raged between Harry Potter and the Dark Lord, Harry threw his words like daggers, meaning to strike the heart of the enemy in one last attempt to stop the killing. But Voldemort was having none of it. He sneered and laughed at Harry Potter. I won't go into any more detail as many of you already know that vital scene word for word. The small detail I am choosing to focus on right now is this; Bellatrix did not die.

Yes Molly Weasley fired a killing curse at her, yes it seemed like to all the world she had been struck in the chest, but alas she lived on. Her breathing was faint and her heartbeat was barely there, but still, there it was. You may be asking yourself why this is, you'd be a fool if you were not at least a little confused. The killing curse instead of truly striking Bellatrix dead where she stood, instead hit the silver pendant Bellatrix always wore. But she didn't get off lightly, the curse though not killing her still hurt (a lot) and had in fact burned the pendant into her skin and knocked her deep into unconsciousness. But still better than being dead.

When Voldemort died, every deatheater still alive felt the familiar tingling in their left arm, the dark mark was reacting. But instead of calling them to Voldemort it simply faded to nothing, leaving every person free to live again, under no shadow of tyranny; the Dark Lord had finally been defeated once and for all. After that, after the end of him, the glamour was gone from being there,the battle was over and many thought that meant they were done, many people left, though a few dozen still stayed to clear the bodies of their family and friends, nobody touched the deatheaters, and a wide circle was unofficially cleared around the corpse of the once great Voldemort.

Bellatrix lay crumpled, broken, defeated by a mere housewife. She was totally embarassed but she was not dead. She was left with the dead. She was presumed to be dead, but she was not. It was mainly teachers who stayed during the clean-up, though a few members of the children's organisation 'Dumbledore's army' stayed to offer what little help they could. Many were set to digging a pit, a huge group tomb for Voldemort and his deceased followers, the teachers were off creating walls and trying to make sure that Hogwarts would stay standing. And that left Hermione.

Hermione was doing what she thought was the worst possible job. She had to levitate the lifeless bodies into rows, the death eaters and co. on one side and the good guys on the other. She didn't even have the energy to feel relieved that the line of dead deatheaters was much longer (it stretched from wall to wall with no gaps). Hermione sighed and sat down with a weary sigh, burying her face in her hands, but finding it impossible to cry. She had completed her job and though she wanted to do more to help, she didn't think she had the strength, mentally nor physically. So for now she rested, hoping that when the time came to help she would be able to scrape up the strength from somewhere.

Bellatrix Lestrange lay no more than a couple of feet away from Hermione, breathing shallow and trying not to show any tiny signs of had woken in mid-air and caught the look of fear and disgust in the mudbloods eyes as she was forced to move the "dead" deatheater. Lestrange lay there for a few minutes and Hermione showed no sign of moving from her huddled form, she could have been asleep. The woman stood slowly and walked cautiously, on tiptoes, trying to avoid using the loud clicking heels on her boots, she made it past Hermione and to the smashed window at the head of the great hall, where a bedraggled curtain still lay wrinkled and shredded on the floor. Getting this far had used all of Bellatrix's strength and willpower, her muscles burned as if she were under crucio and her heart was thumping irregularly and so loudly she thought it impossible that Hermione hadn't heard it.

The window was as far as she could make it. Bellattix was wandless and helpless and tired, she curled in a cuccoon of curtain and fell into a sleep so deep she could have been comatose. Hermione woke herself only minutes after, too spooked by the prescence of the dead to go into a real sleep, she wasn't as used to death as Bellatrix was. Hermione Granger paced the hall four times before she realised that something was wrong. It was not like in a movie were she had a six sense to tell her danger was close, or even just a killer intuition to tell her that something had changed. No, Hermione only realised because she saw it for herself. She was turning round when it caught her eye, the gap in the line-up of bodies that had not been there before, the line had stretched from the end of the hall to the other, a complete regimented line that was perfect and undisturbed. But now, it had changed, there was a gap, the perfect sized gap for one person to have slipped out from. Someone was gone, and Hermione didn't know who, and she certainly didn't know just how close she was to her. Hermiones breath caught in her throat and her heart started pounding furiously. How silly, how naive to think that this nightmarish ordeal was almost over, it could never be over.

Hermione stumbled, shocked away from the empty space, unwittingly tottering marginally closer to the sleeping hidden deatheater. Hermione slumped to the floor, shock overriding her usually flawless logic "How could this happen?" Hermione whispered to herself.

"How could what happen miss Granger?" Minerva's voice echoed eerily through the hall as Hermione realised how much her voice must carry in the silent stone room.

"Nothing, just blaming myself for all this." Hermione gestured at the rubble "I know I shouldn't..." Minerva smiled sympathetically and with her gentlest voice offered Hermione the Gryffindor dorms to stay in.  
"The password is 'Loyalty' go up whenever you're ready, I've placed protections around it, but I do have some more business to attend to so if you will excuse me Miss Granger, I bid you good day." Minerva strolled away again, not a mark on her to show how hard she fought.

For the second time in an hour Hermione buried her head in her hands and sighed. Tears still remained elusive to the heroic bookworm but she didn't feel as if she would be able to sleep, not after the deaths of so many people. And though what she had told Minerva had been a hastily constructed lie to hide whatever hideous mistake she had made, there was a small seed of doubt that as Hermione realised was there grew and sprouted tendrils of guilt, shame, sorrow and Hermione knew, deep down that she could have stopped this. Hermione sat crumpled in on herself silently, wearily berating herself for all the times she could have stopped things, so for hours Hermione blamed herself and grew more and more angry at her imaginary stupidity. She didn't know that a pair of dark, scared, haunted eyes had at last fluttered lazily open, Bellatrix had finally awoken to a world that believed her dead. Bellatrix's faint stirrings were not loud enough to alert Hermione to her presence, her thin pale fingers reached to her pendant immediatley, burnt to her skin it was the most painful thing she had ever felt, a dull shadow of the original pain still throbbed every now and again through the bitter husk she called a heart. Shakily unsheathing a silver knife from the inside of her thigh the battered killer prepared to slice her heart out of her chest. Not her real heart. The heart pendant that had only hours ago been an easily removable accessory needed to be hastily removed due to the magical defences she had bestowed upon it. The silver knife sliced through the layer of pale creamy skin that joined the woman and the pendant, severing the cold burnt metal from her chest. Only seconds later blood dripped steadily from the chest of a whimpering murderer.

Bellatrix's gasps and whimpers of pain finally alerted the still tearless Hermione to the fact that she wasn't actually alone. Hermione stood up slowly, eyes wide with fear at the sudden intrusion. She turned to see the strangest sight she had ever seen. The proud and once fearsome Bellatrix Lestrange tears dripping steadily down her face, half wrapped in a ragged curtain, clutching a bloody heart pendant in one hand and the other trying to stop the steady bloodflow that stained both hands and her already bloodstained dress.

"Help me. Please help me." Bellatrix gasped, her high voice sounding childlike without its usual cruel undertones.  
"Keep putting pressure on the wound." Hermione ordered through gritted teeth. Unknown strength seeped into Hermiones body as she worked to keep Bellatrix alive.  
"Accio dittany!" Hermione almost screamed, pointing her wand into the beaded bag she never left anywhere without. The dittany flew out on command and Hermione plucked it from the air with accuracy she couldn't have survived without. Unstoppering it Hermione gently moved Bellatrix's bloodstained hands and dripped dittany onto the bleeding flesh. Bellatrix's wound healed completely before Hermiones eyes; now the war was over she no longer needed to be stingy with dittany. Bellatrix's pale bloodstained hand reached towards Hermione's face, she rested it on Hermione's cheek and whispered  
"Don't let them take me away. Don't let them kill me." Before falling instantly into unconsciousness. Hermione looked down at the small form of the sleeping killer and felt revolted by how protective she felt over the little bloodstained form in front of her.

Hermione shook her head "There'll be no more death today." she sighed.


	2. Chapter 2

So this is the longest chapter I've ever written :] I hope you like it. And if you don't, just pretend to for my sake.

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Hermione looked at the strange woman sleeping in her bed. Dark curls fanned out wildly from a pale delicate face. How was it possible that this woman that everyone feared was so small and childlike? It seemed so inappropriate, so strange that something so evil could possess a body that exuded an aura of innocence. Hermione had half carried, half dragged her up five flights of stairs and was surprised how small the fearsome Bellatrix Lestrange actually was, Bellatrix was actually just over five foot tall and very thin after her years in askaban. It was easy to forget how tiny she was when her insane cackling filled an entire battlefield, but when her body lay in front of you, helpless and covered in blood, it was an instinct as natural as breathing to want to protect her.

It was wrong. it was so, so wrong. Hermione knew that, what she had already done had gone far beyond stopping her from dying, she had given up her own bed, watched her while she was asleep, committed at least three crimes in not reporting her alive. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Harry Potter himself had tried to give Tom Riddle a second chance in front of a crowd of hundreds, friends and foe alike. So could Hermione, Harry's second in command offer that same second chance to Voldemort's second in command? Probably not, but she would anyway, she already knew that. She'd already come this far she might as well go the distance and try to make a difference. Hermione had made her mind up and all she could do was hope that Bellatrix had not done the same.

**_Running through the pitch black forest barefoot, shadows of leaves and braching looming overhead, tripping over logs and roots, younger than I am now but not a lot smaller. I've always been so damn small, too small to do anything, too small to run... But I have to keep going, have to push my short legs to run faster, work harder, until my muscles are burning and sweat dripping, but its not good enough. I know what will happen to me if they catch me, when they catch me. I can't bring myself to give up even though I know it will be over all too soon. Tears of terror overflow and drip down my flushed cheeks. I can hear dogs barking not far enough behind, hear the laughter and shouts of excited men hoping for a prize at the end of this; me. So with tears dripping down my face, I push myself harder than I'm meant to go, harder, faster, I'm panting, lungs burning and I know already that I've not done enough. Not tried hard enough. I can hear them clearly behind me, laughing. I know its my fault but all I can think of is that I'm so young... so damn young... just fourteen... I'm panting, diving wildly searching for a way if not to escape then to die. I don't find it. A rough hand on my arm; they have me. They've caught me. I'm lost. but its enough, it shocks me out of my memories. My nightmares._**

Bellatrix Lestrange sat bolt upright, breath only escaping in ragged pants from her heaving body, her forehead beaded with sweat as the terror of the nightmare overwhelms her, tears escape her eyes; they're running from the terror too. As her hands reach out in the darkness for someone; anyone. Hermione is there, the answer to the beckoning hands in the night. The warmth that somehow, inexplicably comes from the cold. The last light available in the darkness. So for a reason Bellatrix can't quite understand she holds her and comforts her, cradling her like the child she seems to be inside. And for another reason, one Hermione can understand well enough but wishes she didn't, the two 'enemies' fall asleep entwined, both scared but for such different reasons. Hermione with the mind and body of a woman with the age only of a child, and Bellatrix the other way round.

Hermione woke first, to find a mass of dark hair and pale face cradled in the crook of her neck, both of their arms were holding the other closer, for comfort and sheer need of human contact. The situation she found herself in was almost overwhelming, but not quite, for a moment Hermione just lay there, welcoming the warmth of another body; but then she looked down. Bellatrix's dress had been covered in blood and now so were Hermione's clothes. Hermione managed to detangle herself from the mass of human limbs and retrieved her wand from her desk, she couldn't help but wonder for a second what would have happened if Bellatrix had awoken first, would she have killed her saviour? Of course she would have, it was stupid to believe a mass murderer would behave otherwise. Hermione stood wand pointed at Bellatrix for a minute, unsure of her next move before the woman in question chose to speak.

"So are you going to use that wand or am I free to go?" Bellatrix's voice had a mocking edge to it too dark to belong to that of a child. The sudden lack of innocence in her voice strengthened Hermiones resolve.

"Get up and get changed, we're leaving in fifteen minutes." Hermione ordered. Bellatrix groaned and flung herself dramatically backwards into the rumpled duvet.

"But I don't want to!" she whined petulantly.  
Bellatrix's eyes widened when a second later a wand tip was nearly embedded in her neck.

"Watch where you point that thing mudblood or you may find it shoved somewhere painful." Bellatrix spat.

"Just get dressed Lestrange. You're a mess." Hermione snarled.

The deranged beautiful woman made her way over to a chest of drawers and began rifling through its contents. Pulling drawers out and empting them onto the floor. Hermione just watched in faint amusement at the expression on her face at the things she found. She even managed a laugh at the disgust on Bellatrix's face when she found a dildo. After a few minutes she had chosen which of the girls clothes to wear and looked at Hermione strangely.  
"So you're just going to watch me get changed?" Bellatrix smirked and raised and eyebrow suggestively. After laughing at Hermione's expression she shocked Hermione by turning away and slipping her dress off, baring pale flawless flesh that Hermione's eyes were drawn to. Hermione swallowed and realised somehow her mouth was completely dry, she knew she shouldn't be looking at her like this, she was a woman, too old for her, and a murderer. But somehow even though she knew she shouldn't her eyes would never stray far from her before they were lured back in.

Bellatrix finished five minutes later pulling on her own boots while wearing a pretty daring dress of Lavenders. It was purple in colour and flared out at the hips only covering the legs up to halfway down the thighs.

"So mudblood, am I decent? Fit to be seen in public?" Bellatrix laughed, a child's giggle instead of her usual maniacal cackle.

"Shut up." Hermione snapped. It was far too easy to feel at ease with this woman, a dangerous thing to do was to relax, especially handling a bitch like Bellatrix.

"So what next? " She asked in a singsong voice before sobering up quickly "You do owe me a torture session, but that doesn't seem like your style. I don't think you'd keep me this long to just kill me. So what do you want? Information? Names? Sex?" clearly ignoring the harsh words administrated by Hermione.

"I want to keep you alive." Hermione answered with no hesitation.

"You're protecting me?" Bellatrix whispered in shock.

"Yes. But I'm not setting you free."

"Free" Bellatrix snorted lying back on the bed "I've never been free."

"You think you weren't free Lestrange?" Hermione laughed

"I know so Granger" Bellatrix retorted. Hermione froze instantly.

"Stop trying to make feel sorry for you. It isn't working." Hermione demanded,

"Whatever you want mudblood." Bellatrix drawled.

"That's enough talking. We have to go" Hermione said grabbing Bellatrix's arm and dragging her downstairs.

Hermione grabbed a handful of floo powder threw it in the grate and stated their destination, she pulled Bellatrix close to her, both of them fitting in the fireplace at once in what was almost an embrace. Then both tumbled out of the fireplace on the other side Hermione landing on top of Bellatrix in what would have seemed a compromising position if anyone had walked in.

"Getting a bit too friendly mudblood." Bellatrix sneered trying to push Hermione off her  
"You wish Lestrange." Hermione spat  
"As much as you like to flatter yourself Granger, I really don't wish that; so get off me." she demanded.

Hermione picked herself up and brushed the soot off her bloody clothes, groaning as she realised she forgot to change.

"I realise I am quite tasty mudblood, but you don't have to moan like a dog in heat whenever you're around me." The laughing woman had somehow sat on top of the large fireplace. Bare legs dangling down and swinging at her command as she grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"Once again Lestrange in your dreams. Do you have any clothes that aren't freaky black dresses?"  
Bellatrix pondered this for a second before just saying "Nope." and continuing grinning eerily.

Hermione walked through the manor with Bellatrix a wands length in front, marvelling at the dark beauty she never expected the Lestrange manor to posses. It was Gothic and dark but everything was finely made and intricate in a way that couldn't help but suggest beauty. The unlikely pair kept walking round the impossibly large house until they came to Bellatrix's bedroom, which surprised Hermione in both its size and contents. The room was decorated in Black and green like anyone with a brain would have suspected but the two full windows on either side of the bed stopped the room from seeming dark and oppressing in any way. The bed was a huge king sized mahogany four poster bed with gauzy black drapes that were almost as fine as lace. Bellatrix ran to the bed with ill disguised glee and dived on it nearly being swallowed by the impossibly thick duvet.

"Aaaah." She sighed "Finally a comfy bed again." Hermione watched in abstract amusement and was more than tempted to join her in her revelling. Only being stopped by the one thought that kept chanting itself in her head. "She's a murderer. She's a murderer. She's a murderer." Hermiones inner monologue would not shut up.

"Pack a bag Lestrange we're leaving soon." Hermione ordered sounding bored of her antics.

"No Granger. You're leaving soon. I'm staying." Bellatrix stated as if it were a fact.

"Ms. Lestrange with all due respect..." Hermione started before being cut off by the ex deatheater

"Jesus Christ! lighten up mudblood!" She drawled before strolling over to the chest of drawers with a honey coloured liquid filled decanter on top. Unstoppering it she poured herself a generous glass and downed it before pouring herself another. Hermione walked up behind her and took the decanter away from her after she poured herself a fourth glass.

"Hey!" She protested quite weakly

"Shut up Lestrange. If we're going to stay here we do it my way."

"Stop calling me Lestrange!" she shouted, looking for the first time like the madwoman she was "call me Bella or failing that Bellatrix."

"Fine, Bella." Hermione spat

"Thank you, Hermione." Bella said smiling, now completely calm. Hermione shook her head; this woman was going to be impossible.


	3. Chapter 3

Hermione was woken by screams and sobbing. Bellatrix was writhing in the bed shouting out in fear and pain. Her screams reached an earsplitting crescendo as her dream reached its peak, before sitting up bolt upright panting and crying out for her saviour. Grasping hands reached out as tears trickled down a pale haunted face.  
"Hermione!" Bellatrix cried out scared of the memories that wouldn't leave her alone.

Hermione crawled into the huge bed next to Bellatrix and held her close as her tears subsided.

"They wouldn't stop Hermione" She whispered, devastated "They kept touching me and wouldn't stop. I told them to stop. And they hurt me..."  
Hermione stroked the smooth ebony curls of the sobbing witch.

"Shhh..." Hermione crooned, tears erupting from nowhere but from holding such a broken woman "I won't let them touch you, I promise you. No-one will ever hurt you again."

"Why did they do it Hermione?" The pained whisper continued "Why did no-one stop them?" Hermiones hands pulled Bellatrix's face to her level and looked straight into her dark enchanting eyes.

"Who hurt you Bella? Who did it?" Hermione asked as softly as she could. Bellatrix's eyes glittered as fresh tears made tracks down her face.

"The death eaters, they... they hurt me, chased me, and they... they touched me when I didn't want to. Then... and then forced Rodolphus on me, he was as good as I could have hoped for in my situation, an alcoholic, violent, murderous deatheater... I was spoiled goods you see, no-one decent would have me." She looked so broken, so unlike the usual strong crazed Bellatrix that Hermione had come to expect. "I hurt other people so they wouldn't hurt me. It wasn't worth it but slowly... I started to like it. I needed it. The more I hurt others the more I could ignore my own pain." She whispered appalled at the memories that bombarded her. The murder, the torture, the pain had to get someone, better them than her.

"You can stop hurting people you know. You have to, its the only way I'll be able to protect you. You can start again." faint desperation seeped into Hermiones voice as she spoke, this was her chance, her moment to change the world. Probably the only chance she'd ever get to change Bellatrix's nature.

"I don't know how." Bella said, almost regaining her normal voice.

"I'll help you. I know you can change, I just know it. You just have to try and I'll help you." Hermione vowed, filled with hope. Bellatrix flung herself at Hermione and for a second she thought she was about to die, before Bellatrix's lips crashed down onto hers. Hermione eyes opened wide with complete shock to see the dark womans closed eyelids, this was not as she'd imagined this moment going. Maybe tears, or a hug if the ex-deatheater was acting like a human being, but one thing Hermione ever expected was to be kissed (rather passionately) by Bellatrix Lestrange.

The kiss only lasted a few seconds and was nothing if not chaste but when Bellatrix pulled away she looked as confused as Hermione, as if she too had not expected herself to do that. Bellatrix turned away facing the wide windows and the glowing moon a blush tinted her flawless cheeks, but in the darkness it was impossible to tell.

"Goodnight Hermione." Bellatrix formally half whispered, lying back down under the thick rumpled duvet.

"Night." replied Hermione, purplexed by how much had happened in the last two minutes. She lay facing away from Bellatrix but didn't leave the bed telling herself that if Bellatrix had nightmares then she would need someone to hold her. Hermione didn't think about how immediately it was her name Bellatrix cried out in the dark, she didn't think about how she felt only too comfortable after just over a day and she especially didn't think about the kiss; that tiny bit of nothing that still had her lips tingling and Bellatrix's scent all over her. Both Hermione and Bellatrix slept soundly that night.

"Hermione!" Bellatrix whispered, urgently shaking the sleeping girl "Hermione get up! Get up there are people in the house!" Hermione's eyes shot open, a survival instinct taking over, she rolled quickly out of bed and landed crouched on the floor silently. She quickly stood drawing her wand and pointing it at Bella. Bellatrix closed her eyes thinking the girl had finally decided she wasn't worth the hassle, but instead felt as if an egg had been broken over her head, the feeling spread to her whole body and she became almost completely invisible, the odd distortion could be seen when she moved but otherwise she was almost completely safe.

"Stay curled up in the corner or something, don't move and don't make a sound, if I don't come back then I'll meet you at three in the shrieking shack." Hermione hesitated for a moment staring at the blank space she was sure Bellatrix still occupied.

"Good luck" Bellatrix whispered. Her words were greeted by a brave smile from Hermione, who then preceded to stalk silently out of the room, looking more like a predator than Bellatrix thought possible. It was clear that this gentle, intelligent, bookwormish girl was also a formidable enemy. She was glad she would no longer be on the other side of that wand, especially when she no longer had her own.

Hermione stalked silently through the halls, not bothering to cast a disillusion charm on herself, preferring to stay visible but more alert. Hermione followed the faint sounds of raised voices until she reached the main hall, the very place that she and Bellatrix had flooed into. The scene she saw before her eyes was not the one she had expected to see, and not the scene that Bellatrix would have to be afraid of.

"Well I didn't see her either mother, its up to you to find her body, you are her sister after all." Draco drawled lazily slumped in a huge armchair near the fire, thin face looking slightly happier than the day before.

"Draco how dare you!" Narcissa shrieked at the recoiling teen. "She was your auntie, you have a duty to look after her, she is family... was family..." she corrected, trailing off into an awkward silence. Draco snorted with laughter.

"She was a fucking freak mother! Even for the Black family she was a basket case!" Draco laughed at his own words before his mother slapped him across the face. A look of shock and burning rage appeared on his face as quickly as the bright red mark from being hit. "How dare you mother! How dare you lay a hand on me!" He turned an angry blotchy red and started advancing on his now fearful mother. Hermione moved to back away and collided with an invisible solid object in mid-air, letting out a very audible thud followed by "Uumph". Draco's eyes snapped instantly to Hermiones fallen ruffled form sprawled on the floor.

"Mother!" Draco half yelled in panic "The order's here!" Narcissa's eyes too were drawn to the fallen girl and it was clear that neither of the pair were meant to be there.

"Wait!" Hermione cried out as the son and mother dived for the fireplace. Hermiones hands clawed uselessly at the air. "Wait don't go!" Hermiones words did nothing as in a couple of seconds they were both gone, disappearing in the magical green flames running from exactly the opposite than what they thought she was, though to where Hermione didn't quite catch. Hermione sighed not bothering to get up until the same invisible very solid object she'd collided with whisked her back onto her feet. "I thought I told you to stay in the bedroom?" Hermione sighed, talking as if to a child who had sneaked a look at their Christmas presents. She could almost sense the grin spreading across Bella's face.

"You did." The empty space spoke with Bellatrix's voice. "But I couldn't resist."

"One day that's going to get you in a lot of trouble, you do know that don't you?" Hermione sighed.

At the swish of Hermione's wand Bellatrix become visible and was standing closer than she had thought. With a gasp Hermione went to step backwards but was stopped when Bellatrix's arms circled her waist, trapping her too close for comfort to the damaged woman.

"Thank you for trying to stop them." Bellatrix said pulling Hermione into a tight embrace

"No problem I just..." Hermione started

"No," the older woman interrupted "What you've let me have, its more than I could have wished for, and far more than I deserve. But \i really feel the need to ask one more thing of you." Bellatrix's dark eye searched Hermione's as if looking for some hidden hatred. "I want to see Andromeda. We have a lot to talk about." She said. It then made sense to Hermione, she had been looking for any sign of disbelief, any sign of mistrust. She had clearly not found it.

"OK." Hermione said nodding thoughtfully. "One condition though." she warned

"What?" Bellatrix asked warily, finally letting Hermione go. Bellatrix took a step back, looking ready to take off at any moment. Her eyes had a distinct look of mistrust in them, as if many people had taken advantage of her. Which of course Hermione knew was true.

"We have to go now." Offered Hermione. "Before you have any time to chicken out or change your mind or turn this into some really mental over complicated escape plan."

"No." Bellatrix demanded, her jaw was set and her eyes were burning "I do have a plan. Not quite an escape plan though... its a rather good one. But for it to work I'll need about an hour to prepare."

"Fine then." Hermione caved rather quickly, her curiosity piqued. "Tell me this master plan."


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, so you may have noticed Bellatrix doesn't seem in character, its sorted in this chapter. This chapter does contain a nice little slice of Bella/Hermione smutt. So if you're under 18... ignore me and read it anyway ;) lesbians are fun

(I'm only joking, please don't. I might get in trouble.)

Enjoy, review, play nice with others.

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An hour later Hermione stood at the doorway to the Tonks family cottage. The faded blue door stood before Hermione, for a minute she really didn't want to knock. Her reached into her pocket, stroking the smooth fresh parchment which was vital to the plan, it was proof that Bellatrix trusted her, and it would be rude to not return the favour. She found her hand knocking seemingly of its own accord. A ruffled red eyed crying woman opened the door and for a second she didn't recognise the woman who looked so much like her sister.

"Andromeda? Are you OK? You look terrible" Hermione blurted thoughtlessly.

"Hermione?" Andromeda sniffed "Gee thanks" She chuckled, gradually her chuckle turned into a hysterical sobbing. This was clearly where Hermione had cut in. Andromeda walked back into house, trying to hide her face in her hands. Andromeda slumped onto the worn sofa and continued with her impossibly loud wailing. Hermione wasn't foolish enough to ask what had her so upset, everyone had heard about the deaths of Tonks and Ted.

"Look I'm really sorry, I heard about both of them... passing on" Hermione faltered as she struggled to find the right words. Andromeda collected herself for a few seconds enough to ask one vital question.

"Why are you here?" She cried. Clearly wanted to show her pain only in privacy.

"Did you hear about Bellatrix?" Hermione asked hesitantly. Knowing she was dead to the world as if sensing Hermione's line of thought she smiled though clearly not from happiness.

"She was dead to me long before that, I hadn't spoken to her in years." Andromedas smile didn't hide the extra layer of pain in her eyes at the thought of her "dead" sister.

"Andromeda. I kind of went to her house, I wasn't supposed to, but I thought there might have been something the order could have used." Andromedas dull tear washed eyes held a spark of interest for a moment or two before flickering out. "I found... a letter. Written to you but never sent." Hermione's gaze searched Andromeda's lifeless eyes to see more tears welling up.

"Read it to me." She rasped fresh tracks making their way down her face. Hermione pulled the parchment out of her pocket and started reading.

"Dear Andy" Andromeda let out a strangled sob and buried her face in a fluffy blue sofa cushion. Hermione carried on after a moment, sure that she wouldn't interrupt again.  
"I know its been a while since we last spoke, just over twenty years I believe. But I'm writing this to let you know I do regret what happened between us, more than anything. Askaban opened my eyes, it took sixteen years of cold grey stone and my worst memories to show me just what I'd done wrong. What I saw was you, over and over I felt the pain of you leaving, the pain of losing you. I didn't realise for a while that I had never lost you, the pain was self inflicted. You had the right idea, you had it all along. Love, family, kids, not the sham that Narcissa had, not the empty life I had.

I don't know if I will ever get to see you again, or what circumstances that may be under, but I love you Andy. Always have always will. No matter what happened I always saw you as my sister, I played my part well under he-who-must-not-be-named in the hope I would be alive after his defeat to read this to you in person. If I'm not then I'm sorry I wasn't there for you all those years ago when you were in labour, I promised you when I was nine and you were six, I promised I'd be there to hold your hand. I'm so sorry I wasn't.

Love Bella."

Andromeda had been listening throughout with wide-eyed (and teary) disbelief.  
"Why?" Andromeda exhaled in a ragged whisper "Why did you do that? I was broken enough! I was hurt enough!" She cried "You didn't have to tell me that I lost my sister as well... my... my Bella..."

"Wait!" Hermione cried, more than a little desperate right now "If you could see her, now. If you could do that, would you want to?"

"Of course I would!" Screached Andromeda, furious at Hermione for worsening the pain that was already so close to unbearable. "What do you think you're doing Hermione? Just because you help bring you-know-who down doesn't mean you can hurt me, torture me!" Her wailing was almost incomprehensible and totally heartbreaking "I'm already hurt enough!" She cried, lost to all reason, until the depressing fit of hysteria was cut by two quiet choked out words.

"Hi Andy." Bellatrix almost whispered from the doorway, it was a miracle either of the women had heard her over Andromeda's banshee like wailing.

"YOU!" Andromeda screamed drawing her wand, pointing it at the ghost standing in her doorway "You! You're dead!" Andromeda started hyperventilating and moments later fell to the floor, seemingly unconscious.

"Andy! Andy!" Bellatrix knelt by the side of her collapsed sister and stroked her greasy unkempt hair. Hermione came and knelt down by Bellatrix's side to find wand being harshly held to her throat; Andromeda's wand, in Bella's hand.

"Drop your wand, now. Or I kill you." She demanded, the warm human voice Hermione had gotten used to was gone, replaced with the cold emotionless threats of the true deatheater.

"You!" Hermione whispered in shock "You tricked me! You lied to me!" Bellatrix's cruel hands slammed Hermione up against the wall, she may not have been taller than Hermione but she was a lot stronger.

"Its nothing personal sweetie." She grinned a smug toothy grin, pulling Hermione's wand out of her pocket herself "You were just a tool." Bella kissed Hermione suddenly, passionately, burning red lips met Hermiones and confusion raced with pleasure through her confused muddled mind. Bellatrix pulled away leaving Hermione breathless leaning on the wall.

"You'll never get away with this, I'll tell everyone you're still alive. There won't be a wizard in the world that won't be searching for you!" Hermiones face was blotchy with rage but her legs were still unsteady from the kiss. Bella stepped forward again and pressed her body firmly against Hermione's. The hatred in Hermiones eyes became a nervous sort of terror.

"What are you doing?" Hermione squeaked. Bella's grin grew making her face look thoroughly cartoonish.

"Oh Granger..." She crooned tucking one of Hermiones curls behind her ear, which she then leaned in to whisper in "Did you really think I'd let you get away?" Bellatrixs lips were so close that when the brushed Hermione's earlobe she sent explosions of shivers down the younger girls body. Her tongue flicked her earlobe just once and managed to coach a gasp from the otherwise e girl.

"What are you going to do to me?" Hermione stammered, eyes closed to try and ignore the soft touches that seemed designed to break her. Bellatrix smirked into the younger girls neck.

"Whatever you want me to do darling..." She whispered her irresistibly husky voice sending inappropriate thoughts through Hermiones once pure mind.

"No...no... you can't do that to me, its wrong." Hermione muttered shaking her head as if in response to a question. Bella drew back a little and tilted her head to the side in wonder.

"Do what to you?" puzzlement shone clear through her voice, this was no trick.

"All those filthy things you were showing me with your mind." Hermione said as if it must be obvious. A smile played on Bellatrix's lips and all Hermione could think of was how much she wanted to slap it off her face... and then kiss it better.

"Hermione..." Bellatrix grinned "I wasn't sending you any thought, that wasn't me thinking that."

"Well of course it was you!" Hermione snorted "If it wasn't you then who else could it... oh... oh Right." Hermione faltered catching on to the way Bellatrix was thinking.

"Did it go a little something like this?" Bellatrix asked, slipping her hands up Hermione's t-shirt and into her bra to cup her in one smooth movement.

"God Bella!" Hermione cried out involuntarily as Bellatrixs cool thumbs slid over Hermione's very erect nipples. Bellatrix loved the way Hermione cried out her name. Hermiones body shuddered as her back arched and a moan escaped her lips. Bellatrix let her lips brush Hermiones and was surprised when the girl acted with such red-blooded lust. A trait the mudblood had never really shown before. Hermiones body reacted with Bellatrix a way it never had before, it craved her touch and needed to feel the heat of her body underneath it.

Bellatrix extracted her hands from the girls bra and proceded in lifting her shirt off her body. The girls smooth flat stomach was perfect and her breasts were even more tantalisingly mouthwatering when less clothed.

Hermione's desperate fingers pushed Bellatrix's strapless dress off her body and it fell to the floor revealing the most amazing sight she had ever seen. A gorgeous woman, in just underwear. Bellatrix knelt down in front of Hermione and proceeded to peel the jeans of the extremely aroused teen. Hermiones heart was racing and her breath came in ragged pants as the deatheaters finger ran along the inside of her thigh. When it reached her panties and stopped, she couldn't help but whimper in disappointment.

Bellatrix looked Hermione in the eyes as she pulled down the scrap of material that separated her from her goal. And then, everything became a little blurry... Bellatrix's finger ran the length of Hermione's lips and came out covered in Hermiones juices. She gasped in pleasure and revelled in the feeling of another womans fingers touching her where only Ron had gone before. Before Hermione knew it, it was Bella's tongue, tracing the outline of her clit and flicking it as she cried out in wild abandon. Bellatrix's tongue knew what it was doing, and had clearly travelled the same journey many times before, as it entered into Hermione she knew she couldn't last long when she was being driven so wild by the simplest of touches. Hermione's body knew only too well each what each movement of this very talented woman was doing, tasting her, fucking her, delving deep inside her in a skillful way she had never felt. Bella was intent on tasting each inch of Hermione Granger.

Within minutes Bella had brought Hermione to the edge, her body was writhing with pleasure and for a moment all Hermione could think of was when Bellatrix had been having a nightmare and her body was going wild, under a thin sheen of sweat. That image in her head tipped Hermione Granger over the cliff and into a wild stormy sea of pleasure. Hermione threw her head back and let out a wild guttural scream of pure ecstasy as wave after wave of pleasure raced through her body. How had she thought this was wrong, could there be anything more right than feeling something this fantastic? Hermione couldn't see how. Hermione ragged panting breath calmed down after a few minutes but before she could move to kiss Bellatrix and return the favour, the dark haired witch was struck down by Andromeda.

Finally the hostess was back to entertain her guests.

But from what she had seen, they had their own entertainment.


	5. Chapter 5

I did have some trouble writing this one. I don't really have a plan for this story, I don't fare well with plans so I'm just hopiong that when inspiration strikes it doesn't destroy what little amount of storyline I may have managed to create.

I'm still not happy with this chapter :/ be nice though

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Bellatrix Lestrange lay sprawled unconscious on the floor, pale and perfect in all her mostly-naked glory. On her luscious red lips was still moisture from the unsavoury activities she had been performing only moments ago, an her partner in her oral sins? Was sat hunched and crying only metres away; the saviour Hermione Granger, revealed as the helpless victim in a way no-one had ever seen before. And who had interrupted them? None other but the sister of Bellatrix Lestrange but the woman that stood holding a wand over the two was not the proud aristocratic Narcissa Malfoy, no, it was the heartbreakingly alone, dangerously unstable and undeniably fragile Andromeda Tonks. I use all of their full names because considering the strange circumstances it would be easy to try and talk yourself out of believing the truth of this incredibly compromising situation. But no, all that you had assumed is correct, Andromeda had oh-so-rudely interrupted oral sex between Bellatrix and Hermione, which as soon as Hermione had collected herself had sent her tumbling into a fit of despair and unadulterated grief.

Grief? I hear you not so quietly shriek. Oh yes grief. Grief for the loss of everything a girl should hold most dear, though it wasn't her first time receiving oral sex (or normal sex for that matter) but it was the first of many other things. The first time she had orgasmed, the first time she had been with a woman, the first time she had actually enjoyed a sexual encounter. All of those first times were ruined, stolen, besmirched by the fact it was with a mass murdering psychopathic freak called Bellatrix Lestrange.

Hermiones sear soaked face was buried in her hands as she sobbed hysterically, the mirror image of the woman she had disturbed only fifteen minutes ago.  
"What... What the fuck... Why did you just? What?" Andromeda stammered, shock and disbelief mingled on her face in the perfect portrait of heartbreak "That's my sister, my dead sister. Why were you... doing that... doing that with my dead sister?" She looked as if she wanted to cry (again) but she found herself incapable of squeezing out those last few drops of moisture from her grief-racked body.

"I'm sorry!" Hermione cried, anguish clear on her face. The teen was as close to broken as she had ever been "I don't know what happened... it just did... I'm so sorry Dromeda..." Hermione hiccuped her way to a hesitant halt.

"Don't call me Dromeda!" snapped Andromeda before quickly cooling down "Sorry, that's what she... she used to call me that... when we..." Andromeda trailed off into an awkward silence that left Hermione wondering just what exactly they used to do. When they talked? When they didn't hate each other? Maybe, but Hermione wasn't sure.

"What do we do? I mean what do I do? I don't want to drag you into this... but I broke laws, and honestly all I wanted was to prove she could change... and then she.. we... I just don't know what to do Andromeda. I really don't." A strange look came into Andromedas eyes as she heard Hermione speaking, not quite making sense and definitely not conveying the message she had hoped to.  
"Hermione, have you ever thought that maybe, you're not quite as straight as you thought you were?" Hermione laughed humourlessly at her careful choice of words.

"Increasingly, well... only around Bella really." Andromeda nodded knowingly  
"Urm, would you mind turning round? I kind of want to get my clothes on." Hermione smiled tentatively. Andromeda blushed but nodded and turned around to let her get dressed in privacy.  
"Actually..." Hermione started "Do you have any clothes I can borrow? Mine are kind of ruined... they're the clothes I wore in the battle." Andromeda nodded and smiled kindly.

"Of course Hermione, you can have a wash if you want, I can't imagine you've had the opportunity. My sister can be quite a handful." Andromeda's words were very true, Bellatrix could be more than a handful, she was a nightmare, as slippery as a wet fish and even if you caught her somehow she'd find a way to escape you once again. Bellatrix Lestrange was more than a handful. She was an imperfect, magnificent yet completely impossible woman, that for a reason she didn't want to acknowledge wouldn't get out of Hermiones head.

Hermione couldn't focus on the details of the house around her until she was already looking through Andromeda's clothes for something suitable Hermione finally settled on a pale blue shirt and black jeans. Probably the most conservative and least expensive clothing in Andromedas wardrobe. Before long Hermione was soaking up to her chin in hot lightly fragranced water, feeling all but one of her worries melt away. How was it when her mind was clear, a certain deatheater stayed in there. Since apparently relaxation wasn't going to clear her mind, the stressed bookworm resorted to semi-violently scrubbing the dirt dust and blood from her whole body.

After Hermione was done her skin shone a thoroughly scrubbed pink, it was so nice after going so long without hot water to wash in. Hermione hair was just a little bit more manageable and she in herself felt a little happier. As if nothing could phase her. Hermione changed into the clothes she had set out for herself and was surprised when she looked out the window at how dark it was. The world had kept on moving while she hadn't been paying attention. It had a funny habit of doing that.

Hermione walked into Andromeda's bedroom unprepared for the scene in front of her. She was quite far into the room before she realised that there was sleeping body in the large bed that occupied most of the space in the room. In the darkness she couldn't tell if it was Andromeda or Bellatrix. Did it really matter? No. Of course not. But she still found herself creeping to the side of the sleeping woman to try to see which of the sisters it was. She was unexpectedly happy to see that it was her Bella. Her Bella? No. Not her Bella. She was a lot of things, but she wasn't her Bella. She tried to tell herself that, but she couldn't help but brush a stray raven black curl from her face. Her Bella?

The bookworm moved away from the beautiful criminal, terrified of waking her when she clearly needed the sleep. Hermione had just gotten to the spare bedroom when she heard the terrified noises that she could never mistake with any other. Hermione almost ran all the way to the main bedroom, not noticing the sleepy eyed Andromeda following behind. As Hermione entered the room the squeak of the door must have awakened the sleeping woman as she lurched into a sitting position clutching her chest and sobbing. There was no way she could have known who had come to her rescue in the dark.  
"Hermione?" She cried out, so scared and childlike in the darkness. Bellatrix had clearly not lied about as much as Hermione had feared. She had bared her fear to Hermione and held her for at least a few sincere moments. It was not all lies.

As all of this ran through Hermiones head, her hands were reaching out to the distressed woman, comforting and soft in the cold and harsh pitch black night. Hermione stayed silent as they held each other until Bellatrix stopped sobbing, the heaving body of Bellatrix coming to a gradual standstill as the warm comfort of Hermiones soft embrace fought off the clawing terrors that lurked in the dark crevices of Bella's mind.

"Hermione." Whispered the strange broken child-Bella "Don't leave me. Don't leave me alone in the dark... please."  
"I won't" pledged Hermione "I promise I won't, I'm so sorry I did." tears dripped from her face, making their way through the impossible maze of Bella's thick hair.

Neither of them noticed Andromeda's surprised gaze fixed on them from the door, they didn't notice the fresh tears making tracks down her face. She never thought that her hard-hearted sister was possible of any true feelings, not since she joined the death-eaters anyway. And now here she was, being comforted by a muggleborn. The very thing she was supposed to despise, and she was holding her like... like a lover. Never had Andromeda expected things to work out, never mind work out like this. Bellatrix Lestrange falling in love? Bellatrix Lestrange falling in love with a girl? Bellatrix Lestrange falling in love with a muggleborn girl? All had seemed impossibility's... but now... Andromeda shook her head incredulously and exited the room. If there was any hope for her once beloved sister, she would do no good from interfering.

Hermione was woken the next morning by the light streaming in the windows, the quite chirping of the birds and Bellatrix whispering in her ear.

The things she whispered were not the saucy words of a seductress, nor where the grisly details of her misdeeds long since past. They were in fact the hard to say truths that she had not told anyone, the secrets she felt were best kept by someone who couldn't tell anyone; a sleeping girl. But Hermione wasn't asleep, and just the things she was whispering gave Hermione some strange sense of hope. Until she spoke those chilling words, whispered oh so nicely, gently, as if to a lover, as if she were in love. But she was not.

"its such a shame..." The speech started out simple enough "Such a shame I have to kill you sooner rather than later. You have such potential little one... such fire. But you know how wars are. You can't let yourself get too attached, and that's the way we are headed. It is nice to have you here. More than nice in fact, and that's the problem, you're too soft... too pretty. Far too tempting for me. I promise it won't hurt when I have to kill you. I care too much for you pretty little one." Bellatrix stopped for a moment and Hermiones mind raced. Was Bella confessing her love or threatening to kill?

Both. Probably. Well, it was Bellatrix so what else was she supposed to expect? Bellatrix Lestrange. The woman who handed out both pleasure and pain, never equal but so confusing that you couldn't tell which was more dominant. It never really mattered around her. Pleasure. Pain. As long as she's there.


	6. Chapter 6

Okay, sorry for the long wait, I've been having a lot of trouble with ideas for this tory, so if you want to see the story take an unexpected twist please review and suggest what you want to happen.

Sorry if this chapter sucks. Be nice.

Denny.

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"Why can't you just be good?" Hermione almost shouted. Their discussion had long since passed the point at which it became an argument. Bellatrix snorted derisively, swigging from a bottle of wine.  
"Oh please! I can't be good! Not now. I've spent too long being bad, its fun for me. Plus if I was good, I would never have got to fuck you." Bellatrix's crass language caused Hermione to flinch.

"No but if you were good then you would get to sleep with one person all the time, you could have a relationship" Hermione hinted.  
"Who would want a relationship with me?" Bellatrix laughed, while a spark of true worry found its home inside her eyes.  
"I would." Hermione immediately blabbed without thinking before turning bright red.  
"What?" Bella snapped, shock written all over her face. Hermione tried to walk away but Bellatrix grabbed her wrist and dragged her toward her. "What did you say?" Bellatrix whispered as she tried to stop Hermione from leaving.

Hermione yanked her hand free from Bellatrixs grip before turning to go. She couldn't find it in her to walk away, so instead she turned to face Bellatrix once more, deciding to be brave she told her exactly how she felt.  
"All right, I said I want a relationship with you. I like you, a lot." Hermiones hand reached up to caress Bellatrix's face, which set Bellatrixs bottom lip trembling.

Bellatrix had never looked more confused. She closed her eyes and tried to step backwards out of Hermiones reach, but only succeeded in being stopped by the wall. Bellatrix stayed there, eyes closed lips trembling and trying not to give in.  
"Stay away from me Hermione." She whispered, sounding far weaker than she wanted to. Hermiones hand once again found Bellas face as her trembling increased.

Hermiones lips found Bellatrixs and unlike the last kiss they shared, it was not a harsh forceful lusty kiss, it was soft gentle and full of feeling. Feeling that Bellatrix couldn't handle.  
"Stop..." Bellatrix breathed before gaining conviction "Stop... stop. Hermione! For fucks sake get off me!" Bellatrix starting out whispering and gradually it turned to shouting, with the last few words she managed to summon her strength and push her away.  
"Bella, are you OK?" Hermione clearly couldn't see the problem.  
"This... this kissing is the problem." Bellatrix was on the edge of a complete meltdown.  
"What do you mean? We've kissed before? We've had sex before!" Hermiones face was confused and incredulous.  
"No. Not we never kissed like this. I've never kissed anyone like this before... its too soft, full of feeling I can't do it." Hermione brow knitted in confusion.

"But surely you've kissed many times like this? Your husband, or any lovers you had?" Hermiones guesses just had Bellatrix shaking her head.  
"No..." She started slowly "Well, yes, I suppose. But its never... Its never really got to me before, never been this sweet and tempting. I can't give into you. I just can't."  
"Why not?" Hermione brow furrowed further "You've already 'given in' before anyway."  
"No." Bellatrixs voice was suddenly forceful as she shook her head. Hermione took a step towards her and pressed her body against hers once more  
"What's so wrong with this?" She whispered down into Bellatrixs ear as huge dark eyes sparkled up at her.

"The way it makes me feel is what's wrong with it." Bellatrix looked more conflicted than anyone Hermione had ever seen.  
"Don't you like it?" Hermione whispered, obvious hurt and mortification flitted across her face, had she just made a total fool of herself?

"I like it. A lot." Bellatrix's eyes flicked down for a second before she continued, unsure whether or not to say her next words. The need to hear her thoughts out loud overuled her fear of Hermiones reaction. "I can't bear it. I can't fight... this... feeling. What we have, how you make me feel, I just can't help it. And its killing me. I can't help but blame you, and it makes me angry, that you have this power over me, I hate you because I want you so much. But its not just that..." Bellatrix paused once more, moral debate raging in her head. "Its not just that I want you, I feel this unbearable need to be near you. I can't handle the thought of you in the arms of anyone else, or getting hurt... and every time I see you, I want to... I need to stay with you, because when you're gone its like a huge gaping hole in my chest and it hurts. It physically hurts." Bellatrix had tears running down her face as everything she felt came tumbling out her mouth in a mass of mixed up words, far too blocky and somehow they just couldn't describe it right. "I tell myself that I hate you, and that I'd kill you as easily as any other muggleborn. But I couldn't, I can't. I just can't think of you as a mud... as a mudblood. I can't. You can't be, I can't feel this for a mudblood. But you are. And I do. And now you've changed me beyond any reasonable doubt because what I feel for you changes who I am. You've turned me into something I've always hated. You've turned me into a bloodtraitor. What I feel for you has turned me into a bloodtraitor... because..." She choked through the tears "I love you."

Hermione light brown eyes never once left Bellas as she took her tear stained face in her hands, thumbs gently wiping tears from flawless flushed cheeks. Bellas arms snaked round Hermione neck as she gently pulled Hermiones face down the last inch or so, their lips met just as softly as before, with an audible whimpering escaping from Bellatrix.  
"This..." Bellatrix whispered against Hermiones soft waiting lips "This makes me want to never let you go."

Once again Bellatrixs lips where moving softly against Hermiones lighting a fire in both of the women in a way they had never known before, both scared of it but both loving every sweet soft meaningful second.

"As happy as I am for you two." Andromedas lightly teasing voice floated in from the doorway "I do not want to see this every time I come in to my own kitchen." Bellatrix flushed and looked down embarrassed; not because they had been kissing but because once again she had shown her weakness through her tears. Hermione just smiled and nodded, leading Bellatrix out the room. They were walking upstairs together when there was a knock at the front door, not an urgent panicky rapping but a careful powerful deep and booming knock, the kind of knock you imagine hearing before you world falls apart. The booming knock immediately drained any and all happiness in either womans face Bellatrix scrabbled up the stairs followed closely by Hermione. Bellatrix quickly crawled into Andromedas wardrobe as she felt what felt like an egg being cracked over her head. It seemed like every time this happened Hermione cast that on her. The bushy haired bookworm clicked the lock closed and as quietly as she could peered her head round the top of the stairs so that she could see the person who thought themselves fit to intrude on her and Bellas perfect happiness.

"... no...no Minerva of course I'll let you know if I see Hermione... I'm sure she won't show up here but if she does..." The rest of the conversation was hard to hear but Hermione was sure that her Bella wasn't in danger. Her Bella? That thought just wouldn't leave her.

But no, Hermione was sure there would be too much searching for her if she did not step forward, and the last thing anyone in this house needed was for anyone to look too hard. So walking down the stairs she made up her mind to stop the search there and then.

"Andromeda its all right." She said placing her hand placatingly on the womans shoulder "Sorry Professor for the disappearance. I just need time to think right now." Minerva nodded and smiled gently.

"Of course Miss Granger. For some reason Professor Dumbledore suggested that I should come and look for you here... Merlin knows how he knew where you were... That mans knowledge astounds me... anyway Miss Granger, at least now I can tell Mr Potter and Mr Weasley that you are safe." Hermione nodded, a flash of worry flitted onto her face at the thought of Ron or Harry visiting, or Merlin forbid finding out the big secret... Hermione found her head shaking as if of its own accord.  
"Professor... would you mind not telling them were I am? I'm not quite ready to face the world yet. I'd like to just lay low for a little longer." Minervas face got impossibly kinder as she nodded  
"Of course Miss Granger. Just try not to take too long before you get in contact with them, they both need you." With that last statement she turned and apparated away.

Great, as if Hermione didn't feel guilty enough. She closed her eyes as tears threatened to spill over her eyelids, it seemed strange that less than a minute ago she had been in a glowing state of euphoria. Somehow she couldn't see anything about her life working out anymore. All she saw was the possible tragedy, Bellatrix caught and given the dementors kiss, Harry and Ron would hate her forever, she would go to askaban. Everyone and everything she had known and loved would be ripped from her as the dementors turned her slowly day by day into a cold lifeless shell.

That night Hermione was the one who had the nightmares.


	7. Chapter 7

Okay, I know its taken me far too long to upload this, i do apologize sincerely. Everyone has been so lovely reviewing and its all of you reading this that have spurred me on with this. Also, I now know where I want to go with this story! Thats the only consolation I can give you for the really late update, that and the fact I'm on a role so you should expect the next update in the next few days.

I'll shut up now

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Andromeda didn't know what was happening to her. The introduction of Hermione and Bellatrix into her everyday life had changed her. She didn't mourn for her husband or daughter anymore, even though she felt the loss of them like a crucio to the heart every second of the day. The two women were somehow fascinating to her, she watched them silently, studying them every day, what was once an act from Bellatrix very soon melted to reveal true emotions.

It was when they started arguing it all fell apart. Bellatrix and Hermione would be having what seemed an innocent enough conversation and then somehow, it always escalated, they screamed themselves hoarse at each other while Andromeda rocked and cried herself quietly to sleep, feeling like a child whose parents were separating. Bellatrix couldn't control her anger or loyalty to the cause. Hermione couldn't ignore her need to convert Bellatrix to good. Andromeda couldn't ignore the screaming.

One day, a few weeks after Minerva's unannounced visit there was yet another argument, which was becoming quite standard by now. Bellatrix's raised voice still echoed in Hermiones head. Their arguments were getting worse and it was striking both of them more and more, love wasn't enough to keep two completely different people together. Hermione had been once again trying to convince Bellatrix of the advantages of joining the order.

"Bella, please, if you did then... we could be together, we wouldn't have to hide ourselves away." Hermione voice was pleading and her hand was grasping at Bellatrixs.  
"Hermione, listen, I will never join the order. I just can't." Bellas voice was more forceful than Hermiones, a sure sign that things were about to escalate.  
"Why not?" Hermione cried, dropping Bellatrix's hands like they were burning "What is so unacceptable about doing something good for once in your life?"  
"Listen!" Bellatrix hissed standing up so quickly she sent the chair toppling backwards " you just expect me to walk into order headquarters, to the people that have hunted me down since I was 16, you expect me to face them, face the Weasley woman who believes she killed me. And for what? To sell out my friends, my family and my Lord! All the Order has ever done is kill my friends and hurt me, the deatheaters protected me, they always have and I owe many of them my life several times over. I will NEVER betray them." Bella's eyes burned with anger as she vowed to stand by her beliefs.

"I'll never be able to protect you. Its only a matter of time before someone finds you." Tears seeped from the corners of Hermiones eyes; she was always the one to cry. Bellatrix very rarely showed her weaknesses in public.  
"Oh grow up and stop crying. I can look after myself. You just need to give me my wand back and I'll look after myself." Tears continued to leak from Hermiones eyes.  
"Why would I give you your wand back?" She practically shrieked up at the dark woman "So you can kill people? Muggles and mudbloods, people like me? If you can't change, how can I ever trust you?" Bellatrix opened her mouth to retort but was stopped when Hermione kept shrieking. "I can never be with you... We can never be together if you refuse to change!" Hermione's last words were nearly incomprehensible amidst the sorrowful wailing.

Hermione stood and grabbed Bellatrix's shoulders, shaking her shoulders lightly with the force of her sobbing. Bellatrixs hand shot up a struck Hermione to the floor. For a second the silence rang true through the house, louder than any shouting or sobbing ever had. Hermione lay on the floor, one hand pressed to the side of her stinging face as her look of shock was rivalled by Bellatrix's. Bellatrix was looking down at Hermione, her eyes bulging as if she was wondering what she was doing on the floor. A choked noise broke out of her mouth as she looked at her hand with fear and disgust, as if it had turned to a snake and tried to bite her.  
"Hermione I'm so sorry!" Bellatrix broke from her trance and reached to help Hermione.  
"Stay away from me!" Hermione cried trying to scramble away from Bellatrixs helping hand. Bella slumped to the floor in a lopsided kneeling position, hand half stretched out to Hermione as something died in her eyes.  
"I'm so sorry Hermione..." Bellatrix whispered aghast and dropped her eyes to her hand once more.

"Just stay away!" Hermione cried eyes wide and watering with terror.

After that incident Hermione left the house. Unable to face the woman she had fallen in love with and her sudden turn to violence. With a burning tear and a sharp turn she disappeared with an echoing pop.

Hermione to the delight of two nearby boys reappeared somewhere not too far outside of the village of Ottery St Catchpole. Well, I say somewhere, she apparated just outside the door of the Weasley family home, fondly named the Burrow.

"Hermione!" Harry bellowed practically jumping onto her from his broom. His tight embrace was just slightly uncomfortable and she couldn't help but remember the last person who had held her close... "Oh Hermione." Harry whispered into her ear "Ron really missed you." Harry's words were just fuel to the already monumentally huge inferno of guilt.

"Hermione, where have you been?" Ron roared with excitement before lifting Hermione and spinning her in clear excitement. "Everyone's missed you, I really missed you..." Ron still had Hermione about three inches off the floor and as he finished speaking he seemed to remember and put her down again.

"Yeah." Hermione smiled, she had missed the comfort of these two boys, they felt like home. "I missed you guys too."

"So..." Harry dithered just outside of the couple awkwardly but still beaming with joy "Are you going to stay here now?" His eyes sparkled with a kind of shy hope, hair having to be flicked out of them due to the length. It was still unruly as ever, three stands sticking up like the crest of a cockatoo.

"No." Hermione whispered shaking her head "I still have stuff to do I just wanted to see you guys again." Ron frowned, brow furrowing in clear upset that what he thought of as the love of his life wasn't going to stay. It was then he noticed how tired she looked, bags under her eyes and a unconscious frown on her lips. It was then he noticed her eyes were red and bloodshot from the traitorous tears. It was then he got really worried about her.

"Hermione..." Ron wavered, unsure how exactly to approach the subject. Ron's hand wavered a few inches from Hermiones cheek before dropping back to his side. "Never mind..." The awkward moment quickly passed and after a few minutes the trio were back to laughing and joking about the old days, past adventures and jokes that had been worn out from use.

The atmosphere at the Weasleys was still that of a close knit family, even with the additions of Luna and Xenophilius Lovegood, Harry and Hermione. The Weasleys were as coddled and happy as ever, Percy seemed to have inadvertently filled the space left by Freds death. He was a rock for George to lean on in his grief while somehow still managing to be the life-raft that stopped him sinking in his despair. Percy paid for the rent in the joke shop while the family was grieving and growing around the gaping loss of Fred.

Hermione laughed and joked through the day, having tea and spending as much time as she could with her friends. The strange lopsided house had never felt so much like home. Every room was warm and filled with laughter, they all ate a little too much and Hermione was even given a dark green coloured jumper that had a picture of some books on the front. It was the one thing she ever felt like was missing out of at Christmas's at the Weasleys, and here she was with it, a full fledged part of their family. It wasn't even near Christmas, its March.

No matter how long she spent there she couldn't quite forget that she didn't belong, a much as she wanted to she had another place that she wanted to be more. She missed her and over the day she found herself missing the brown eyes that looked like dark chocolate melting all the time. She missed the soft squeeze of the pale hand in hers. She even missed the screaming voice and constant arguements. The Burrow was a sweet family place but sometimes it bordered on becoming sickly.

She missed Bella.

So with a fussed goodbye from all the Weasleys, and more than one offer from Mrs Weasley that she should stay, Hermione walked away from the line of waving Weasleys and with a twist was looking at the cottage she had come to think of as her home.

Hermione smiled looking at what was once the Tonks family home. What was it now? One Granger, one Tonks and one Lestrange lived there now. Spring flowers poked through the grass and the hanging baskets overflowed with them. It was really a beautiful place, but the beauty of the house was not what Hermione was looking forward to seeing. She wanted to see that wild mop of hair as Bella flung herself into her arms.

However reality was far from the dream.

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Please review :] I'm a review whore (thank god this is rated M and i can say that)


	8. Chapter 8

I hope this came fast enough for your likeing my lovely reviewers :] I do dote on you lot! most attract reviewers ever I do believe ;] unless you don't review. Then I hate you. But if you review I'll love you forever.

Denny

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Hermione opened the faded blue front door to see no light glaring from the cottage she called home. Instead she was greeted by darkness and silence. It was not the welcome Hermione had found herself hoping for, but it did calm her jagged nerves, she had been worrying about the reunion scene that she might have been waiting for her.

Just a few steps through the darkness found her tripping to the floor over some misplaced object. Hermione drew her wand and without needing to speak sent a glowing light spilling from the end of her wand. The pale silver wandlight showed a sight she thought she would never see again; a crying Andromeda. Tears streamed from swollen red eyelids and her lips quivered, she was an exact duplicate of the Andromeda she had found the first day she and Bella had shown up.

Hermione tottered backwards away from Andromedas grief shaking her head, understanding dawned on the younger woman. Had the impossible happened? Hermione was stopped by the wall behind her as she shook her head vehemently.  
"Where is she Andromeda?" Hermione asked, eyes still dry despite the twisting agony being ripped from her shattered heart.  
"I'm sorry Hermione..." Andromeda choked out between her deafening sobs.  
Undeterred by Andromeda Hermione ran from the house, room to room. She checked everywhere, pulled apart the house in her search for her. Because somewhere in Hermiones mind she couldn't believe it, she couldn't believe that Bella could be gone, couldn't accept the fact that she wasn't here. So she must be there, hiding somewhere. She must be. Because she couldn't be gone. Not when Hermione had finally realised how much she needed her, not when Hermione had realised that without Bellatrix life was completely and utterly meaningless.

Hermione finished her search of the house and left it in a state of ransacked chaos. She dragged herself, feeling dead and empty to the bathroom where she collapsed in front of the toilet and proceeded to heave her dinner into the pristine white bowl. Tainting its perfect smooth whiteness with the anger and sorrow and simple inconsolable heartbreak.

She knew how Andromeda felt, she now knew what it was like to lose someone you loved. She had thought it impossible to feel this much pain, it should have been impossible. Even Bella, even in her nightmares she had not felt this much pain, this much sorrow or fear. She had lost her. She had lost her and she was out there somewhere and Hermione couldn't find out where, she didn't know any spells, any incantations hexes curses or potions that could lead her to Bellas, or lead Bella to her, lead Bella home.

The warmth and love that had flowed through her from the Weasleys affection had entirely dissipated. What was one day with them when it cost her the rest of her days with Bella? It was nothing. They were nothing. She loved Bella and her aching shattered heart told her she always would. Tears now flowed freely down Hermiones face. What was the point of trying to hold in the grief? She wouldn't fool Andromeda, and there was no-one else to see her weep.

Hermione barely found the strength to pull herself onto her feet. She somehow managed to force her legs into motion even though she couldn't feel them. She couldn't feel anything. She was numb. She was dead. She was heartbroken. Hermione made her way to the room that she and Bella had shared for the last month. Such a short time to be happy, how short a time it took to fall in love. And then it was snatched away. Locking the door behind her Hermione dragged herself to the bed and collapsed into the warm comfort that had once belonged to both Hermione and Bellatrix. The duvet though warm and comfortable could not replace the comforting embrace of a lover. It could not replace Bella. And for that she cried. She was wrapped in the scent of her but she knew she wasn't there. She knew she was gone and didn't know where. Hermione cried. She didn't sleep she just wept and wished. She wished that the night had been spent in the comforting arms of Bella, a reverse to what usually happened when the sun went down.

Hermione was curled under the covers, too warm and no more tears left to cry. The morning had come all too soon and once again Hermione wondered exactly why the world kept turning, surely it could not be just three people that knew how devastated she was, surely the world could feel the tremors bursting from her chest in every dry sob. Why didn't everyone feel the ripples of pain? Surely something this devastating could not be so private. Could it?

When she finally emerged she saw the pale cream envelope sitting on the pillow. The last piece of the old house. The last piece of the house that was carefully placed and as it was meant to be. Hermiones trembling fingers gripped the cream parchment, wrinkling the smooth once perfect material.

The perfect letters printed on the other side clearly said her name. Hermione, written in the beautiful handwriting she had seen only once before but could recognise anywhere. Carefully pulling open the envelope the single page of the letter seemed daunting. Perhaps it was the fear of ending all communication with Bella. Perhaps it was the fear of simply what it might say. She used to read dozens of times more writing in a few hours in the library, but that single page seemed too much.

So with unsteady and a still numb body. Hermione padded out of her room in search of Andromeda, maybe she would have the mental strength and resolve to read those difficult words written by her sister who was once again lost to her. Hermione found her curled up in Tonks old bed, no tears flowed anymore, she looked as numb and worn out as Hermione.

"She wrote a letter." The words burst in a croak from her mouth and unable or uncaring she didn't try to stop them. Andromedas eyes were drawn to Hermiones slumped form stood in the doorway. Both of the the perfect examples of broken women.

"Have you read it?" croaked the reflection of Hermiones grief strewn on the bed. She shook her head. No longer sure it she had the strength to speak with it turning to a pained wail. "Do you want me to read it to you?" Andromeda knew how it felt to lose the one you loved. She was hardened by her past experiences with it and better equipped to cope than Hermione, who had never really been hurt before.

Hermione settle herself on the bottom of the bed. Tonks old posters moving next to her head. The weird sisters waving and the Gwenog Jones flying past the camera and winking again and again. Andromeda unfolded the page crammed full of her sisters perfectly formed calligraphy and began to read, croaking voice subsiding after the first few words.

"Dear Hermione" Andromeda read

"I can do nothing but apologise for the way I acted towards you. I cannot promise to change, I believe I'm no longer capable of that. Surely you must see, now more than ever, that what we are, what we have, simply cannot be. Us being together is a murder waiting to happen. Our love is destructive, its burning both of us up at a rate we cannot take. We both are overflowing with fury at the very being of each other and I cannot bear to be a constant source of pain for you. I have come to the conclusion over the day that it would be easier for both of us if I left. A clean break would be best and I feel that in a few months you may have completely forgotten about me or possibly even come to hate me as you should do.

I am a mass murderer, nothing and no-one can change that. I found my wand in your bag and have taken a few things that I believe I might need in my life. I can promise you that I will not kill anyone unless they try to kill me first. I promise you that as long as we shall live I will never bother you again. You will never have to see me and you can go on living your life. You need never think of me again. It will be as if I truly died that day.

I do regret the need to do this but that is precisely why I do it. Because it needs to be done. I'm sorry for any and all pain I caused you. You can go back to your life now Hermione.

Goodbye.

Bellatrix Lestrange."

Hermione sat leaning against the wall as Andromedas reading came to a halt. The letter had not held what she needed to hear to get over Bellatrix. Bella had not told her that she didn't love her. She hadn't insulted her or pushed her away. Instead Bella was the only one possibly able to walk away from this. Andromeda and Hermione would forever be united by this memory of events that no-one but them knew existed. The secrets they shared bound them closer even than blood.

Andromeda had not even been mentioned. Not one word of it was addressed to her and Hermione could clearly see that it upset her. In fact that single fact created a rift between the two women. How could they talk over the events that bound them together when they were not equals in the grand scheme of things. Andromeda was just a witness. A bystander that happened to be there to see it. Whereas Hermione had been an active participant in the circus of sin and secrets that had been Bellatrixs life.

Hermione remembered how she had thought of Bellatrix and realised everything still applied. Bellatrix was and always had been the only one who thought herself important enough to dole out the pleasures and pains of a normal life. Bellatrix Lestrange. The woman who handed out both pleasure and pain, never equal but so confusing that you couldn't tell which was more dominant. It never really mattered around her. Pleasure. Pain. As long as she's there.

Except she wasn't there. Not anymore. So there was only pain. Always pain. A pain that ate away at the very soul of Hermione Granger.

Would she ever see the woman she loved again?

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Don't forget to review yeah? ;]


	9. Chapter 9

Okay, this is the shortest chapter so far, but don't worry, it isn't the last. I promise I'll warn you before ending this.  
Thanks you so much for the lovely reviews, but... It always nice to have more right? Don't be shy, show some love.

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Bellatrix Lestrange wanted to die. She wanted to stand in the rain and freeze until she was nothing but ice and rain. A tribute to her sorrow and the pain she felt ripping through her with every step. Every step away from the house that had become her home, had become their home. Tears mixed with rain on her face as she burned inside. The pain was too intense, even more so knowing that Hermione would feel betrayed, she wouldn't understand why she had to do this. The pain Hermione would feel finding her gone would be nothing compared to the pain if Bella stayed.

Hermione would be fine, after a while. She had her friends, her family, her entire life was waiting for her and Bellatrix's was behind her. Bella had already lived, her family and friends were condemned by the world and she was believed dead by all but two people. No. She would have only been a burden to Hermione, an infection, a disease, a secret tumour eating away at her life. She couldn't do that, she couldn't do that to the girl she loved. Yes. She loved her. She loved her in a crazy way, the kind of way that had her running away into the rain, hurting her in fear she would hurt her. She had to be cruel to be kind.

Bellatrix knew it was over for her, there was no way she wanted to live if she wasn't with Hermione. So with her wand in hand, with a turn and a pop, she left the only place she had felt happy since she had left Hogwarts as a child. She opened her eyes to destruction that she had wrought just over a month ago. Had she really been so crass and heartless that she helped destroy what was filled with her only happy childhood memories? She didn't think she would do that now. Even if her Lord had demanded it. Hogwarts still stood and though repairs had obviously been attempted but most of Hogwarts still looked a wreck.

Bellatrix was just a hooded figure in the rain, almost invisible in the darkness. She stood and stared at Hogwarts, broken and old, much as she saw herself. There was still a grand beauty to the castle but it was ruined and spoiled by her and her comrades. Bella approached the huge doors, shut but not locked and after slipping through she noted the entrance hall had been entirely fixed, as beautiful as it had ever been. Bella walked slowly into the Main hall, the scene of her last fight and apparent demise. It looked as if it was fixed but it did not feel as if it were the infamous great hall, there was no magic to it, there were no candles creating a glowing ceiling. There was no night sky to behold, just bricks and mortar that had recently been patched up.

"Can I help you?" The cold unwelcoming voice of Minerva floated from the entrance. She stood proud and tall, even though she had a dressing gown and fluffy slippers. Bellatrix was unrecognisable, hidden in the mammoth folds of the cloak, even her face was lost in the shadow created by the hood. Bella stared at her old teacher and mentor, the woman whose cold and strict demand for respect had inspired her to try very much the same approach to working her way up in the deatheaters.

They stood and stared at each other for a few minutes before Minerva spoke again.

"Who are you?" She demanded to know imperiously, growing more agitated by the minute. Bellatrix strode closer to the grey haired woman who drew her wand immediately, Bellas small pale hands raised defensively, showing lack of weapon or violent intent. The professor wandless hand streaked out quickly pulling the sleeve of Bellatrixs cloak down to show pale unmarked flesh. She relaxed almost instantly.

"I apologise miss. The war has changed us all." Bellatrix nodded almost unnoticeabley beneath the cloak, she knew all about that. "Are you here to talk?" Her nod was obvious this time, so with a sigh Minerva motioned for her to follow her.

After several minutes the two women were sat comfortably in the older womans study. Bella still hidden in her dripping cloak, that fact didn't go unnoticed by Minerva.

"I'm assuming there's a good reason for this level of secrecy?" She was not longer hostile in any way, so clearly she didn't know just how dangerous she was.

With deliberately slow movements Bella placed her wand on the table. The wand almost as famous as the woman who held it for the horrific crimes that had been committed with it. Minerva inhaled shocked at the sight of it and gasped, leaning forward she picked it up tentatively and whispered.  
"Where did you get this?" Clearly she had no idea that she was indeed its owner and wielder.

"Olivanders. Many years ago." Bellas voice was high and soft, it didn't sound the same as it did when she was a deatheater, there was no cruelty anymore, no viscous sarcasm or cutting comments.

Minerva frowned bewildered. With an unspoken spell she sent a blast of air careering towards Bellatrix, it succeeded in dislodging her hood and bared her face.

"You!" Minerva spat horrified standing up and pointing her own wand into Bellas face, she didn't move an inch, she didn't blink or flinch away, she had lived her life at wandpoint.

"You're supposed to be dead, I watched you fall, I was glad!" Bella did recoil from the words, they hurt because she had always cared about Minervas opinion, she had wanted her respect not her hatred. "I could kill you right now." Bellas hands were shaking in her lap.

"That's why I'm here. I've come to die." Bellas words were whispered in a shaky broken voice.

"What game are you playing Bellatrix? Are your friends on their way?" Minerva looked hostile but there was still a flicker of fear in her eyes.

"There is no game Professor. No trick or plot or ploy." Bellatrix was gazing intently on her shaking hands in her lap. "This is the end for me. There's nothing in this world for me and I don't belong here." These were lies. There was something in the world, just one thing, one person. Hermione, Bellatrix belonged with Hermione and it hurt her all the more because Hermione did not belong with Bellatrix. She deserved a life, a pure clean fresh life, the life she had fought for.

"Why? Why me? Why now? You had another chance at a life undisturbed." Minervas questions where all things that Bellatrix could not answer truthfully, she had to protect Hermione.

"You could end it here, quickly, and put me in a hole out there and... and no-one would ever have to know that I lived." Bellas voice faltered as her gaze finally moved from her hands to Minervas face. "Its too hard. Living with nothing. With nobody. The pain, the loneliness. Its unbearable" Tears trickled from her pain filled eyes. She wanted it to be over.

"You want to die?" Minervas voice was not harsh and cutting anymore, there were traces of compassion under the confusion.

"Yes." Bellatrix choked "I can't take it... I can't... I..." She couldn't speak through the force of the tears. After a moment Bellatrix collected herself enough to speak. "Please!" She dropped to her knees before Minerva and grasped at the wrinkled hand. This was how she had acted before her master. "Please kill me. Please, I don't want to live... Not without..." Bellas mind wandered once more to Hermione as she readied herself for death.

Minervas face changed from the confusion to a derisive sneer worthy of a Malfoy

"You can't live without your precious master? Really Bellatrix look at yourself. Look at what he's turned you into. You're pathetic you really are. What happened to your pride, to your strength. You're nothing, you're nothing anymore." The look on Minervas face was poisonous and mocking. Bellatrix shook her head, dropping her hands to her lap.

"It wasn't him. It was never him, it was her, it was all her. She's the one who reduced me to this, your precious saviour. Your beloved golden girl and hero." Minerva frowned in true confusion. "It was always her, Voldemort was nothing. He was nobody. I hurt her... I... I love her and I hurt her. She broke me, she changed me beyond recognition."

"Who?" The ageing Professor clearly thought Bella had lost her mind.

"Hermione. Hermione Granger." It was Minervas turn to recoil.

"If you've hurt her I swear to God I'll..." Bellatrix interrupted the furious woman with cold humorless and chilling laughter.

"Oh I've hurt her all right! I've hurt her more than anyone else has. I've destroyed her and left it up to dear Andromeda to pick up the pieces. I'm a monster. I'm nothing but a monster! Kill me! NOW!" Bellas words were laced with fake hatred as she spat them up at Minerva.

"No." Minerva whispered getting up. "I don't owe you anything. You will not die by my hand. You can live your miserable lonely existence. You deserve the pain."

"No!" Bella screamed as Minerva disappeared into roaring green flames. "NO! COME BACK! COME BACK AND KILL ME YOU COWARD!"

She looked as she did on her wanted posters. Hair flying from her twisted angry face.

Minerva was gone. Bellatrix was left alone and screaming in the night.

REVIEW!


	10. Chapter 10

Okay, so in this chapter, I will be reminding everybody just why it is an M ;]

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Minerva strode out of the fireplace sending clouds of soot flying everywhere, she looked over the room to a sight she couldn't have dreamed of seeing. Hermione Granger, the girl she had feared to be dead or at least seriously injured, clearly upset but alive and physically whole, crying on the sofa in front of her.

"Hermione!" She exhaled shocked "You're alive!"

"Yes" Sniffed Hermione "Why wouldn't I be?" Minerva sat down on the sofa next to the crying teenager.

"Because about half an hour ago the deatheater thought to be dead, Bellatrix Lestrange showed up at Hogwarts and confessed to hurting you, more than anyone had hurt you before. I feared you had lost your sanity if not your life and I-"

"Bella?" Hermione cried in half choked surprise "Bella's at Hogwarts?" Hermione face changed within seconds from a face distorted by tears to one that radiated hope. Minerva frowned at Hermiones reaction

"Miss Granger." Minerva chastised. "It would not be wise to forget that Ms. Lestrange is a convicted mass-murderer and has considerable mental and emotional problems. Anything she has said to you, anything about her that you know is probably a lie. She is an expert in manipulation and seduction." Minervas eyes were burning with concern for Hermione, she had seen both women grow up, and knew that Bellatrix was trouble.

"Seduction?" Hermiones voice was uneven and shaky. She didn't believe that their love was a lie, but she hated the thought that Bella might have used her charm for other reasons.

"Yes miss Granger," Minervas eyebrow raised; a warning. "She is very dangerous, and you would be wise to stay away from her." Hermione stood quickly and though a little unsteady succeeded in making it to the chimney breast. For a moment she leaned against it, steeling herself for the verbal assault she felt was sure to come after she made her next request.

"I want you to take me to her." Her voice was steady even though her legs were not.

"Hermione I really-"  
"No!" Hermione exclaimed butting in. "This is my choice. I want to see her. If you've ever trusted me Professor, then trust me now." Hermiones words had clearly made an impact on the wise old Professor. She pursed her lips in a clear sign of disapproval but she still consented. After a few hurried minutes Hermione was dressed and ready to go.

"Are you sure you want to do this? She's in a disturbing state." Minerva was clearly trying to stop Hermione, but her words were just fuel to the stubborn fire burning inside the younger girl. Minerva seemed to sense that on this point Hermione would not budge so with a sigh she threw the glittering green powder into the grate, causing huge green flames to fly up, with a few words Minerva was gone, followed quickly by the nervous teen.

Back at Hogwarts things had barely changed since Minerva had left, Bellatrix was in the same place, though she had curled into a loose fetal position. As soon as Hermione saw her she ran to her, pulling the deatheaters huddled form into her loving embrace. The way she held Bella was not unlike the way you carry a sleeping child, though she was strong Hermione could only just lift her. Sitting on the couch Hermione pulled Bella even closer towards her, Her head cradled in the crook of Hermiones neck, wild hair flaring out.

"Shhhhh..." Hermione crooned kissing the top of the crying Bellatrixs head as Minerva watched in wide eyed astonishment. This was not how Bellatrix manipulated people, it was almost as if... almost as if she was broken, like a child. Minerva had made a point of watching Bellatrix as a student, she could sense the darkness and pureblood mania in her, her ways of manipulation were from gaining power, not from being helpless. This was not a game, not manipulation, but how?

Hermiones crooning seemed to work as Bellatrix was now not crying, just holding onto Hermione, her face was still buried in Hermiones neck, Hermione was crying silent tears into her loves wild mane of black hair. It all made sense to Minerva now, in the craziest nonsensical way, Hermiones disappearing act, why she was at Andromedas, Bellatrix showing up at the castle, especially what she had said...

They were in love, they were together and in love.

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Minerva watched the two girls asleep entwined, a hero and a villain that had somehow found each other and fallen in love, it baffled her. She wanted to understand, but it had seemed an impossibility. Dumbledore had been right all along, love was stronger than hate, then again, there was very little Dumbledore was wrong about. Speakking of Dumbledore it was around then that his portrait began to stir, he didn't seem surprised to see the two women cuddling asleep on the couch. In fact he looked satisfied, like he had known all along. Minerva did not doubt that.

"I'm assuming you knew of this Albus?" Minerva sounded a little upset.

"No Minerva but I had guessed, or should I say, hoped." Albus spoke as calmly as ever, not worried about waking the heavy sleepers.

Hermiones face was hidden; nestled in the frantic mess of Bellatrix's hair. Bella's face on the other hand was easy to see and hard to look away from. She was beautiful and childlike, her plump dark lips were half parted as a whisper of breath caused a lock of hair to dance and flutter.

"Isn't the age gap a little much?" Minerva thought out loud, her natural mothering instinct kicking in.

"No Minerva" Albus smiled kindly, twinkling eyes peeking over half moon spectacles. "Hermione has always been old for her years, just as Bellatrix has always been young for hers." Albus gestured towards the couple "Look at them, propriety isn't going to stop them now, they love each other."

"But Albus, she's a criminal!"

"She is not the same woman that followed Tom Riddle. You saw her last night, all she needs is support, clearly she is not as cruel as she once was. You need to help her."  
Minerva pursed her lips and left; this conversation was over.

All that would have been fine were it not for the fact that Bella was not actually asleep, she was just feigning sleep in order to listen to the conversation.

"You can stop pretending now Bellatrix." Dumbledore chuckled softly. Almost immediately Bella sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"How did you know?" She grumbled pouting.

"Bellatrix, I've known you were awake for half an hour. In that half an hour you had more than one opportunity to run, and you didn't." Bella shrugged.

"That doesn't mean anything..." She drawled lazily, faking nonchalance.

"On the contrary Bella." Dumbledore smiled "It proves a great deal."

"It doesn't even matter." Bella sighed, hurt evident in her voice. "My life is basically over anyway, theres no way prof... urm Minerva will let me live my life with Hermione. I'll be in Askaban by Tuesday."

"Bella. I will not let you be taken away." Dumbledores promise was as much promise as she was likely to receive.

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Later that very day Hermione had been trusted to take Bella on a walk around hogwarts, or at least, thats what she thought. In reality Minerva was secretly following, little more than twenty metres behind, after a while the women got harder to follow, twisting too fast for the elderly woman to follow in the maze that was hogwarts. After fifteen minutes they had lost her, and Minerva had to return to her study defeated.

Bella and Hermione had heard the echo of Minervas footstep just after their own and using a little bit of trickery and cunning managed to lose their old professor with little effort. Giggling and holding hands the two girls felt like the schoolchildren they had never gotten to be. Hermione lead an unresisting Bella to the newly renovated room of requirement, there was no hint of fiendyfire in the room that they required. Just a large and comfortable bed, and a hefty lock on the door. As Hermione pulled Bella through the door their lips met, pink and red, both soft and full and passionate.

Bellatrix pushed Hermione up against the wall, always the dominant lover. Her hands were working fast, feverishly eager to get at Hermione soft flushed skin. small pales hands pulled Hermiones t-shirt over her head and without pausing to see it hit the floor were already unfastening her bra swiftly. Bella mouth dropped to Hermiones breasts, her teeth harshly tugged at Hermiones erect nipples, drawing a groan of pain and pleasure from Hermione. Hermione found herself fumbling with her jeans, desperate to take them off and feel Bella's fingers deep inside her. Bella had other things on her mind, she had pulled Hermione away from the wall and as soon as the younger girl had completely stripped herself she found herself being pushed roughly onto the bed.

Before Hermione knew what was happening she found her arms handcuffed to the bedposts, unable to touch Bella, unable to feel her soft flesh under her fingers. Hermione whimpered, trying to break the handcuffs to reach her love.

"Oh no you don't..." Bella chuckled into Hermiones neck, slipping quickly down Hermiones body, slick with sweat and animalistic desires.

"Please Bella!" Hermione groaned arching her back in an attempt to get Bella to touch her. Bella lips kissed down Hermiones stomach softly nipping at the flesh every two or three kisses, the gasps she managed to coax from Hermione were exquisite. Bella's lips fell to Hermiones slit and kissed the slick opening to the tune of more groans of approval, her lips pink tongue was suddenly deep inside Hermione, causing a shockwave of shivers shooting up her spine. Bella found herself losing all control of herself, she bit licked and sucked at Hermione with a wild lusty abandon Hermione had never felt before, this was not like the first time they had been together, calculated and controlling, this was wild and free (even when handcuffed to the bed...). Within minutes Hermione reached the edge and came into Bella's mouth, writhing against her tongue uncontrollably.

After a few minutes Hermiones breathing returned to normal, as Bellatrix released her from the cold metal shackles she prepared to return the favor...

Okay, so you can look forward to more smutt in the next chapter (Pffft... I know thats why you're here!)

Review and tell me what you want them to do :] you might get lucky and find me taking your idea.


	11. Chapter 11

okay, so to test the promises of my lovely reviewers I think I shall miss out the next sex scene, none of you are here for the smutt anyway :) (hahaha) i know, i know, i'm more evil than Bella... well she is sort of goody-goody recently anyway...

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Bellatrix woke to the soft warm kisses of Hermione Granger, and couldn't remember ever being happier.

"Hermione" She groaned "We're very late back as it is, Minerva won't approve." Hermione chuckled into the hollow of Bellatrix's neck shivers erupting from the butterfly light kisses that followed. "Hermione!" She gasped at the cold fingers slipping down her warm firm stomach.

"Come on Bells, lighten up... relax... let me relax you..." Hermione whispered into the trembling flesh of Bellatrix's throat.

"Not likely Ice Princess, your hands are freezing!" Bellatrix, giggling, tried to arch away from the biting chill of Hermiones fingers. Hermione sighed and rolled away

"Wow..." Hermione whinged "you really know how to spoil the mood..." Bellatrix laughed at her expression, she was as much a child as her age suggested sometimes.

"Well i must say, the lack of libido this morning is entirely due to our... activities last night..." The corners of Bella's dark red lips twisted upward at the recent memory of both of their sweating bodies entwined, twisting and writhing together, flesh upon flesh, ragged breath and altogether very indecent acts of carnal lust. "Anyway..." Bella continued "We're very late as it is and i believe dear Minerva will start to wonder where we are... and we definitely would not want her to come looking for us." Just the way Bellatrix's voice sounded made Hermione blush a dark rose.

"You're right." Hermione laughed "plus I'm really hungry."

"Hmmm..." Bellatrix murmured pulling her dress over her head

"What are you hmmming at trouble?" Hermione asked as she pulled her jeans on, they were a little too tight due to the excellent food the house elves make.

"Just wondering how you could have possibly worked up such a ferocious appetite... and how i'd like too after dinner" Hermione could only see Bella's back and tumbling curls as the worn out teen rolled her eyes.

"Bella, i'm not sure i'll be up for it after dinner..." Bellatrixs tinkling laughter interrupted Hermione.

"Just a one track mind... I was thinking of going flying, i was awesome when i was younger, and you can hit the library like you've so wanted to." Bellatrix's offer was too tantalising for Hermione; who had been dying to go to the library since the day they had come to Hogwarts.

Later that day Hermione found herself with her nose buried in an old dusty tomb about an ancient study of the planets and how during the day one could still sometimes see the planets if you had a good telescope. Hogwarts of course was home to one of the best telescopes in the world, and the fact that it was magically enhanced didn't hurt that either. It took her a while but she managed to find her way up to astronomy tower lugging four huge volumes in her arms, a difficult necessity for Hermione, her bookishness was a both blessing and a curse sometimes.

a cursory glance to the quidditch pitch was all she needed to see that Bellatrix wasn't actually there, she hadn't expected her to be there, Bellatrix didn't follow the rules. The blur that was Bellatrix was rushing all around the Hogwarts towers, only to swoop low over the lake brushing the giant liquid mirror of the mountains. Bellatrix spiralled high into the lowest cloud bank before she wronski-feinted until she was only a slip away from death, she pulled out of the dive at the last second and darted out of Hermione's line of sight faster than the geek had thought possible of the semi-ancient and dilapidated broomsticks. The way Bellatrix flew was incredible, she was fast but elegant, and wearing the little she was she looked positively indecent. She was wearing small tight shorts and a vest top, her skin glittered with sweat and her hair was pulled back into a ridiculously large ponytail to keep it out of her face. Moments later Bellatrix appeared again and all of Hermione's thoughts of seeing mars was gone.

All Hermione could think of was the burning smoldering look of effort and determination she could imagine flaming in Bellatrix's chocolate eyes, the way her breath would be fast coming out of those plump red lips, Hermione couldn't take her eyes off the older woman, and couldn't help wondering if this fanatical workout regime was how Bellatrix always looked fantastic, pure lithe muscle and skin without a wrinkle to show for all her years; it was still flawless and pure ivory, glowing like moonlight soft and radiant, even her hair, that had been streaked white from the stress of askaban was thick and soft and as dark as midnight. Bellatrix was nothing short of perfect and all Hermione wanted was her, forever.

As Bellatrix dismounted for the day she was shocked to find Minerva waiting for her. Hermione she might have expected, but not McGonagall, McGonagall hated her.

"Ms. Lestrange, I believe we need to talk." Minervas eyes traveled down the sweaty scantily clad form in front of her disapprovingly.

"Urm, Professor can it wait... I really need a shower, I've been flying since breakfast, i really stink of sweat..." Bellatrix looked like an uncomfortable schoolgirl, tugging at the hem of her shorts to try to cover more skin.

"Children are going to start arriving tomorrow, and school starts in two days." Minerva's voice was strained and stressed.

"Yes... I can see why we need to talk. Why don't you just let me and Hermione go back to Andromeda's, or somewhere else, you don't have to keep an eye on us... well, me." Bellatrix was still just as fidgety with her clothes.

"Ms. Lestrange I don't feel comfortable letting you out of my sight."

"Well that going to be uncomfortable when I shower..."

"Ms Lestrange please take this a little more seriously!"

"Yes, sorry Professor..."

Minerva pursed her lips looking the ex death-eater up and down disapprovingly once more.

"Maybe it would indeed be better if you would shower first, I will wait in my study for you."

Bellatrix watched Minerva stride away, this was Minervas domain and she was in charge of everything.

Bella walked into the quidditch changing rooms and grabbed the ridiculously fluffy towel before proceding to strip and step into the showers. The cascade of the warm water against her flushed skin was heavenly and she could feel her tensed muscles relaxing, her thick mane of hair turned into a slick dripping curtain and her perfect body shimmered in the humid mist of the shadow.

With no warning the water cut off, the steady stream of warm liquid comfort was gone and no matter how many times she turned the dial the shower wouldn't start again. Frowning Bellatrix made her way to the changing room, her towel the only thing stopping the harsh chill from invading her flesh.

Before Bellatrix could get changed she found herself being slammed into the cold unrelenting tiles of the changing room walls, big harsh muscular hands encompassed her neck as her head was forced again into the harsh tiles, one of the giant hands twisted her arms behind her, threatening to break it as the other held her to the wall by the back of her neck, causing her to twist her head so her face wasn't embedded into the cold stone, just her right cheek.

"What the fuck are you doing alive." A furious and masculine voice demanded, twisting her arm and causing her to gasp in pain as if to prove the point.

"She just let me go, don't hurt me I can explain everything" Bella begged frantically, she was helpless, wandless, powerless in this situation with no way to protect herself, and that scared her.

"Oh no. I don't know how you survived so long, but you're not getting out of her alive. I'm going to end you here you fucking whore. You deserve it you murderous bitch, you deserve all the pain in the world." The unknown mans words served only to fuel Bella's terror "I'm going to make you feel all the pain in the world" Tears were escaping the ever proud Bellatrix as her body was racked with trembles of fear.

"Please don't, please, I'll do anything, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" the man seemed to find her submission and fear highly amusing as he chuckled darkly

"I'm going to get whatever I want out of you anyway. I'm going to make you feel pain you've never felt before. I'm going to make you burn!" The world shifted too quickly for Bella to follow as her head was smashed into the wall ferociously again. Pain mixed with disorientation as her vision swam and distorted, blood trickled down her face, hot against the cold sweat of terror that had broken out. After a few more agonizing forced collisions with the cold stone wall, her captor seemed to tire of her and with no warnings the hands were gone, leaving Bella swaying on her feet in the limbo between the world and unconsciousness. It didn't take long before her eyes closed and with the brief sensation of falling everything turned black, she was gone before her body hit the floor.


	12. Chapter 12

This is quite a bit shorter than most of my other chapters but as my beautiful reader i thought you ought to know I have actually been blessed with a sudden burst of inspiration, so be expecting the next few chapters in a few days.

please review :) they make me so happy

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The first things she felt was pain. Her eyes were closed and there was only darkness under the rims of her eyelids, there was either little or no light on the other side of them. The pain itself was dizzying and disorientating, the second thing she realised was just how cold she was, and the discomfort of lying on a gritty stone floor in a cold draughty room. After that, recent events came flooding back to the confused dark haired woman.

She couldn't believe it was he who found her, him of all people, anyone else she might have been able to reason with, might have been able to talk sense into or beg for freedom. But he had been so angry, and so much stronger than she thought. He had dragged her out of the changing room by her hair, she was kicking and screaming and extremely naked, as soon as he reached the edge of hogwarts land he apparated to the same dingy cellar she was in. There were no clues as to where she was and there was nothing useful in the heavily locked cellar. The rough burlap sack with three holes in it could really only serve one purpose. It was abrasive against her skin and an insult to have to wear it, but it was better than facing her captor naked and freezing to death.

Bella pulled the offending article over her head, it was more painful and less warm than she had hoped, but then again that was true about most things she had engaged in in her life. It was almost ironic that her captor, the man who had her freezing alone in a dark cellar, the man who had scraped the skin from the back of her legs and feet, the man who dragged her from the woman she loved and her only chance at freedom and a fresh start was supposed to be on the light side, was supposed to be a good guy. This would probably be her death, she welcomed that thought with a cold realisation, she had thought it many times before in her shady past and it was almost a relief to feel something so familiar. Her mind was ticking over escape routes, there was the one entrance and two tiny vents that could barely fit her arm through, there was one way out and one way in.

The door covering the entrance was not made out of wood but out of bars of iron, something like out of a muggle prison. Askaban had far sturdier doors and more terrifying guards. The floor and walls were solid rock, there was no way to tunnel through them without it taking decades, she didn't have decades, she had hours at best before her captor returned, and he was a man with a hatred of her so deep inside him it was almost certain she would be in no state to escape after he returned. There was no small stick or rock or piece of junk to defend herself with, nothing to disarm her captor with, nothing that could possibly save her life. The thuds of footsteps in the distance sounded like the crash of thunder after hours of silence, it was deafening and bass like, getting louder and faster like the unstoppable pounding of her tell-tale heart. The cellar held no safety for her, but it clearly wasn't meant to.

The shadowy form of her assumed killer-to-be descended the steps beyond the cold metal and as wand light illuminated the darkness Bella tried to shrink further into the stone wall, but she was as far away from the wand and it holder as she could get in present situations, but it wasn't far enough, it was blinding in its luminance and she was blinded, backed up against the wall in a cold damp cellar where no-one could hear her, nothing to protect her fragile form and an enemy's wand pointed at her.

"Bellatrix..." The cold voice taunted, the light getting brighter until she moved to lift her hand to try to cover her eyes, upon doing this she found it impossible to stir her frozen limbs, she could feel every itch and cramp and droplet of blood but animation seemed impossible. Spots appeared in front of her dazzled eyes and after a few minutes the intense light was gone, leaving only darkness in its wake, darkness where there should be the natural twilight of the cellar, there was only blank darkness, a shadow had settled over her vision and she found her hands fumbling in front of her face, at least they moved now.

"What's happening... I can't see... I can't see anything..." Her voice trembled as much as her bottom lip, tears snaking their way away from blank unfocused eyes, beautiful but useless and dazed. Bellatrix was terrified and the man stood in the doorway just laughed, cruel and malicious laughter that filled the small stone prison and echoed again and again, ringing through her ears the harsh copied symphony of his mocking enjoyment, he revelled in her fear as much as she used to revel in that of her victims.

"Please..." Her voice wavered as her legs gave way, sending her crashing to the unsympathetic stone floor. "please let me go, I'll do anything, please I give you my word, I promise!" Bella's voice was hysterical, if she didn't care then she could be rational, but she risked not only her own life but Hermiones as well and she couldn't bear it but knew that if she died Hermione would take it into her own hands to make sure she didn't live without her.

"There's nothing you could possibly do to atone for your crimes and even if there was I wouldn't believe you, wouldn't trust you, your words mean nothing, your promises mean nothing, you know why? Because that's exactly what you are, nothing, you're scum."Bella cowered from the harsh biting words, hearing truth in every one about the way she had lived before, but it didn't apply to who she was now, a brand new and shiny Bella, a reformed Bella.

There was no way Bellatrix could have avoided the brutal slam of the fist that tried to embed itself in her chin, she merely fell onto all fours and proceeded to spit blood out of her mouth.

"I'm almost disappointed, I expected a bit of a fight, where's the passion Lestrange? Don't tell me a few months of hiding has mellowed you out... well, you are getting old I suppose. To be honest you're just pathetic now." vague shapes shifted in Bellas vision as the effects of the non-verbal lumos maxima started to slowly wear off.

"Please don't hurt me" Bella begged, still on all fours, looking up at where she guessed her captor was standing. "I can't see anything... I'm scared." Instead of inspiring pity in the heartless tormentor it enraged him, his foot came down on Bella's back, his body weight making it impossible for her to get up or move away, her face if it hadn't turned to the side would have been smeared into the concrete by now.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" He hissed venomously hatred and anger seeping from his words "Are you scared? Are you hurting? I didn't fucking know, let me make it better!" In a second his foot had left her back and crashed down with a sickening crunch onto her hand, Bella screamed in agony as he continued to grind his heavily booted foot into her hand, blood mingled with dirt and bones stuck through the previously flawless skin.

"There!" He exclaimed, so happy he sounded deranged, "at least that part of you is as ugly as on the inside, you're blood's no purer than anyone else's."

"I know, I'm sorry, just let me go, I'm begging you!" Bellas tears and please were frantic, there was only so much pain someone can inflict before getting carried away with themselves and going too far, she knew from experience. But there was also only so much pain a human body can take before shutting down.

"Bellatrix, where's that famous pride! I thought you were so loyal to the cause!" His words though mocking still held a bitter edge, this was a side to him no-one else had ever seen.

"No!" she screamed, just wanted the boot to step off her damaged hand "No I'm not! Not anymore!"

"Oh thats right..." he drawled lazily "like a good little Slytherin you abandoned all your beliefs and ideals in a desperate attempt to stay alive. Well, I don't know how you're still alive so far, but trust me, I will finish the job that Molly Weasley started."

The sound of his footsteps going away would have been a relief if she wasn't so sure that he was coming back soon, there could be no good reason (for her) that he needed to leave the room.

Bellatrix curled into a ball in the corner, trying to minimise the surface area that he could reach and damage. Her broken hand was curled agonisingly slow and cradled in her lap, she wiped the traitorous tears away from her eyes, she would have to be realistic, there was only one way she would make it out of that cellar and that was by telling him that she knew and loved Hermione.

Footsteps signalled his return as the angry villain made his way down the steps, Neville Longbottom was back.


	13. Chapter 13

Okay guys, so this is chapter thirteen, this is by far the longest story I have ever written and it has been down to the support of you. Yes you, reading this of a screen in front of you. As I write this the story has 92 reviews, I would love it if we can prove that thirteen isn't so unlucky, so if you could please help me get the reviews up to one hundred, you'll make me a very happy writer, and when I'm happy I write more :) I'm actually begging you, please be nice and review, just this once.

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The figure standing in the doorway was Neville Longbottom, a cruel smirk twisted his normally smiling mouth and his eyes glinted dangerously, nothing he did to the woman in front of him would make him feel bad, in his eyes she deserved it, anything he could throw at her, he would never regret doing. This was justice.

"This is how you usually work isn't it Lestrange?" he asked, holding up his hands for her to see "All you use is your wand a knife, so that all I'll use, fair is fair right?"

"You know I'm a person too." Bellatrix whispered, eyes downcast and hopeless as the Gryffindor turned vigilante stood before her. The smug and mocking smile faltered on his face, the conversation had quickly deviated from his plan, this was not how he had wanted things to go, she was meant to be begging for her life, or trying to fight back. "Andromeda knows I'm alive. She told me you two talked at Hogwarts a while ago, she's nice isn't she? This is going to kill her, I'm all she has left." Neville Longbottoms face was slack and confused, his arms had drooped and there was a slouch in his shoulders that was a leftover trait from his lanky teenager phase. "And Hermione will be distraught, she'll probably hunt you down and kill you after she finds out, which she will, she's too clever to not find out." Neville shook his head feebly at Bellatrixs words.

"No." he denied weakly "she'd never choose you over me, she's my friend." His large eyes betrayed his confusion, he looked slightly startled and very lost.

"Yes." Bellatrix nodded with more vigour, hope seeping through her body at his lack of ruthlessness, her words seemed to have drained his anger and put him off guard. "Hermione would choose me over you in a heartbeat, she loves me." Bellatrix stood up slowly but as she reached her full height Nevilles hand grabbed her throat.

"No!" he shouted angrily, hand constricting air flow "She can't, you're a liar, you're a monster, no-one can love you, no-one can feel anything for you." One of Bella's hands clawed uselessly at her throat, trying to free herself from his asphyxiating grip.

"...and I love her..." she managed to rasp out as her eyes bulged disconcertingly. Nevilles hand immediately dropped and he stepped away from the woman he had hated all his life.

"You what?" He whispered, eyes bulging almost as impressively as hers had only moment ago.

"I love her." She wheezed, massaging her neck and trying to catch her breath. "I am head over heels in love with Hermione Granger, the muggleborn. She has changed my views and totally realigned my perceptions." Nevilles face was shocked and confused and almost heartbroken, not for the loss of Hermione but for the loss of what he had imagined Bellatrix to be, he had imagined her cold and cruel and calculating, more monster than person. "And I'm so glad I'm going to live."

"What makes you so sure?" frowned Neville his plan officially discarded.

"I have your wand." Bella stated simply, in the same second Nevilles hand reached down to check his now empty pocket he realised his mistake, he had stepped close to her when strangling her, and she had made her move, distracted him by clawing him with one hand and stealing his wand with the other. As Neville moved to stab her in the shoulder with the knife, she side-stepped under his other flailing arm and had it twisted behind his back at an agonising angle, as she pushed him face first into the concrete wall the knife clattered to the floor and with a kick it was all the way across the room.

"The tables quickly turn don't they Neville?" Hissed Bellatrix into his ear, this was the very same position he had her in when she had come out of the shower in only her towel. With a flick of her violently acquired wand he was bound by large and very tight ropes all over his body. "Now Neville, I hope you don't go anywhere, I'll be right back." As soon as she removed her body from behind him he fell, squirming in the dirt at her feet.

Bellatrix left the boy on the floor, still in a better state than she had been in, and as she went to leave she plucked the knife from the dust of the corner and held it up for him to see.

"That's one more thing you would have forgotten. You'd have left that and then I would have made my escape. Its a good job I'm a lot cleverer." Tears of rage and humiliation streaked down his brightly flushed face as he fought against the magically summoned gag, but all he could do was watch her walk away.

Bellatrix climbed the stone steps that lead to an only too familiar cottage. This was the tiny but cute Longbottom house, this was the scene of her most famous crime, the torture of the two aurors, Frank and Alice Longbottom. She had laughed at the time, now she just felt sick.

As she walked into what was still the same kitchen she was startled to be passed by a girl with long dirty blonde hair. She was too familiar as well, she was the girl who had been taken to the manor, the Lovegood girl, and a third of the trio of girls that had tried (and failed) to take her down in the last battle. The girl sat down at the table and picked up a rather ragged edition of the quibbler, it was only on closer inspection of the magazine that Bella noticed it was in fact from more than a decade ago.

Bellatrix walked to the drawer and replaced the kitchen knife to its rightful place, she felt kind of dazed, as if it was all a dream, she thought it was probably because of how strange the girl ignoring her was. As she was leaving the room the girls dreamy voice floated over to her as slowly as if it was fighting its way through a haze.

"Oh, hello... do I have to kill you or are you just passing though?" Bella fought the urge to laugh as the girls solemn eyes gazed questioningly at her.

"I was just leaving, but it seems I can't apparate. Do you mind if I use your owl?"

"Go ahead, Tybalt is in a cage in the front room." Bellatrix seemed to have bored her as she went back to reading the magazine that was older than her.

"Ok, thanks..." Bella murmured quietly as she made her way into the room that was still the lounge area. A huge cage stood proudly almost empty in the corner of the room, the tiny owl that occupied it was huddled in the far corner, and appeared for a second as if it were just a ball of feathers, only the large brown eyes gave it away. Bellatrix grabbed the quill from the inkwell on the small coffee table and scratched a hasty message on the already laid out parchment.

Dear Hermione,

Neville caught me after my shower, and tried to torture me. I'm fine now, he's tied up in the cellar of his parents old house, I have his wand. Please come as soon as possible, and bring Minerva if you can, because I have no idea what to do next.

Bellatrix Lestrange

P.S. The Lovegood girl is here but she's acting a bit strange.

After finishing the letter Bella set the wand on her damaged hand, she gritted her teeth and readied herself for the pain before hissing "episkey". She screamed as the bones reset and aligned themselves, but afterward only the dirt and blood left on the flawless skin told of what had happened. Now that all that she had written was true she turned her attention to attaching the letter to the owl.

The parchment was about the same size as the tiny round owl and for a moment Bella wondered if this bird was actually going to manage it, the owls wingspan was deceptively large and it took off out the window very quickly, disappearing within seconds, it was the fastest owl she had ever seen.

Bellatrix returned to the kitchen to find Luna gone, her magazine lying open and discarded on the table. The pitter-patter of footsteps came from the cellar steps and Bella panicked, the Lovegood girl had probably freed her idiot boyfriend. To Bella's surprise the blonde head re-emerged from the grimy basement alone, the girl smiled dazzlingly when she saw Bellatrix.

"I was coming to look for you." Luna said smiling, Irish lilt ringing through her voice.

"You probably want to know why he's in that state..."

"No. I can guess." Luna interrupted, causing a confused frown to appear on Bellatrix's face. "I was wondering if you wanted some clothes. Your sack is a bit short you see..." Lunas unwarranted kindness was alien to Bella.

"I'd love some, if you don't mind that is." Bella took the blondes offered hand awkwardly and continued to follow her upstairs, feeling a little uncomfortable. The room she was dragged into was clearly newly redecorated by the kooky blonde. Drawings of people she vaguely recognised littered the walls, and one, on the far wall on the right of the window was of Hermione, it wasn't magical, it didn't move but it held a charm of its own, in that it was a perfect reflection of the girl she loved.

"Here you go." Lunas voice range clear from the wardrobe. "I think you'll look nice in that." Luna walked out of the room without looking back, leaving Bellatrix with the faces of strangers and something she'd never wear in a million years.

The hanger that had been handed to Bellatrix didn't hold a dress, it wasn't dark colours, and it was completely opposite from the style she usually went for; but when you're wearing an actual sack, you tend to choose the lesser of two evils.

The skirt would have been okay with a normal shirt, it reached the knees and was a bright yellow colour with a black stripe around the bottom, however the bright blue cotton vest top did make it a little too much, even for her.

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please review, take me up to triple figures you beautiful reviewers! :) i love you.


	14. Chapter 14

I am so sorry that I haven't updated for ages but now I have! So we can be friends again right? In this chapter not much happens, its kind of all about the sex scene, and I would apologise but I'm sure you're glad to see another one ;)

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Blood lubricated the thick and grating ropes as he struggled, this wasn't supposed to happen to him, he was hero, he was ridding the world of one more villain, the villain who had taken his parents and destroyed the normal life he was meant to live. Now the situation they had been in only half an hour ago was reversed, he was tied up like a pig and she was just stood there, staring, thinking, doing nothing.

That killed him, because that's not what villains are meant to do, that's not what she's meant to do, she's meant to be all screams and maniacal laughter and threats of crucio. Except she isn't anymore, she's stood there, and its definitely her, the hair is still as crazy but the dark brown almost black eyes, the eyes that used to sparkle with insanity and blood-lust, they're empty of any anger or hatred.

She should be angry and screaming and cursing him into oblivion. The fact that she isn't living up to his expectations infuriates Neville Longbottom.

"Go on then you whore! Do it! Kill me!" To see the shock on her face from his harsh words, to see her flinch and wince as the words hurt her, the moment was lacking the satisfaction that he thought it would bring.

"I'm not going to kill you." She sounded perfectly calm and collected. How had she come so far from the psychopathic murdering bitch?

"So what then? You think that you can suddenly just make a U-turn and be a good guy? It doesn't work that way Lestrange. The bad get punished." He spat his words out bitterly, trying to hurt the woman he thought was still the enemy.

"I don't expect you to understand Longbottom. Hermione will probably explain when she gets here." Bella sat down and exhaled a long slow sigh "I'm not exactly the monster you think I am. Not anymore anyway..."

"Sure..." Neville rolled his eyes "I'm sure your prisoner can really believe that" The sarcasm dripping from him soaked the room, infuriating her. Bellatrixs fists and jaw clenched automatically with the anger. She always had a quick temper but she couldn't afford to lose it now. She could see the small victory in his smirk just as clearly as he could see the small flame of anger in her eyes. You'd be surprised how much you can see of a person in a dim room.

"I'm not a monster anymore." it took all of her will power to smooth out the clenched fists beside her.

"Yeah right!" He snorted derisively "You think I'm just going to believe you? After everything you've done? After what you did to my parents? You make me sick Lestrange and as soon as I'm free I'm going to tell the world you're still alive, and then you'll never be safe again!" His eyes shone with the crazed fanaticism that hers used to as the ghost of chuckle haunted its way across the room.

It reminded her too much of the first time she had sex with Hermione, of when she had forced herself upon her with her sister unconscious only metres away. The threats of telling the world brought it all home to her, why was she always the villain? Even when she tried to be good, it was unfair of her to think that anyone could really give her a second chance, she'd lived her whole life in the public eye as the kind of creature that should only haunt your nightmares. Everyone knew her as the most evil witch who had ever lived, a sadistic beast of epic proportions.

"I'll be honest Neville, I don't give a fuck what you think." Bellatrix had truly given up trying to convert him with her winning charm "I love Hermione. And yes, I'm not sure when it happened or how, but she is beautiful and funny and absolutely perfect. I am willing to do anything to be with her, and you and stupid preconceived beliefs about me aren't going to get in my way. I'm not going to kill you or hurt you in any way, I just want to be with her, forever."

"Bella?" Hermiones voice quivered over from the steps, Bellatrix turned round so fast she found herself looking at the smiling face of Hermione before she registered actually moving.

Neither of the women actually looked their best, Hermiones eyes were bloodshot and her hair was a mess, Bellatrix looked worse, her skin was dusted with bruises and grime, her hair was caked with blood and so was her hand, not to mention the clothes that were almost painfully bright. Clearly Lunas.

"So its true then." Nevilles voice injected its poisonous anger into the beautiful moment. Hermiones gaze found him and was not friendly.

"You bastard! You hurt her! You hurt my Bella!" Hermione flung herself at him punching and kicking the boy who couldn't move. The protests and shouts coming from the boy were silenced as Bellatrix succeeded in placing herself between Hermione and the object of her rage.

"Stop, Hermione stop!" Bella held her hands up placatingly and Hermione seemed to slump a little, defeated by the voice of reason.

"Sorry... but he hurt you." Her fingers caressed Bellas cheek as if by instinct and she couldn't help but close her eyes at the soft and welcoming touch. "I can't bear to lose you Bella. I don't know what I'd do..." Her voice radiated pain at the thought of losing the woman she loved. Hermiones thumb traced Bellatrix bottom lip and then so her own lips as they stumbled away from the forgotten boy. Hermiones fingers burned a trail of need and lust down to Bellas skirt and she grinned into the kiss. "I like you in a skirt..." Her fingers edged beneath the flimsy cotton and left a trail of burning goosebumps up Bellas thigh. Before she reached her destination she pulled away leaving Bellatrix whimpering into her mouth, instead her hands moved to where she could feel bellas hard nipples pressing through the thin cotton vest, she hadn't borrowed a bra off Luna.

The vest top was quickly discarded and dropped onto the floor. Hermiones fingers set to work gently caressing her breasts as they had never done with such finesse before, she pulled away from Bellas face to bite and suck at the smooth flesh of her slender neck, marking Bellatrix as her own.

"Hermione!" Bellatrix moaned loudly as her legs wrapped themselves around her lovers waist, exposing more than a generous amount of thigh to the cold cellar air... and Nevilles wandering eyes.

The younger womans hands moved lower, pushing the skirt up until her fingers brushed Bellatrixs slick opening, she groaned in pleasure as she realised that Bella wasn't wearing underwear there either.

"Please... please!" Bellatrix gasped drawing Hermiones lips back to her own

"Please what?" Hermione smirked

"Fuck me! Please just fuck me! I need you inside me!" Bellatrix was panting and ready but Hermione wanted to tease for just a little longer. Her fingers ghosted across the older womans exposed sex as her lips once again caught the full panting ones before her. Without warning Hermiones fingers plunged into the dark haired beauty, causing her to yell out and arch her back in pleasure, her breasts were presented and the bookworm couldn't refuse them, her tongue flicked the hardened nipple before her soft pink lips enveloped it sucking and teasing the hypersensitive flesh only sent the thrusting woman into even more of a frenzy.

Hermione pumped her hand faster and faster, burying her fingers deep inside the smooth wet velvet walls.

Bellatrix was lost in a frenzy of pleasure and desperate need, she thrust herself so hard and fast onto Hermiones waiting fingers she could feel droplets of sweat beading on her mostly naked body, she could feel the end racing up to meet her and the anticipation of the pleasure kept her thrusting and thrusting. As she lost herself she flung her head back and as she reached her climax, Hermiones thumb on her swollen clit sent her toppling over the edge into ecstasy. Suddenly the world was all stars and glitter.

It took Bellatrix a few minutes to recover, but when she did she noticed only too quickly that the boy had been watching them the whole time. His eyes were glazed over as he looked her over hungrily, luckily Hermione was covering most of her. Nevilles arousal was barely showing through his thin trousers, which was a cause to pity him even more, or even pity Luna...

"You fucking little pervert!" Hermione hissed at the bound boy she had grown up with who was currently trying to ogle the woman who had tortured his parents into insanity.

"Yeah, I'm the one in the wrong! I'm not the one fucking the enemy, in front of people!" his voice was noticeably huskier than before.

Before the girls had chance to retort an idea clearly formed inside Neville's mind.

"LUNA! LUNA!" He screamed so loudly that Hermione and Bellatrix had to cover their ears "HELP ME LU...urgh" He only shut up when a swift kick landed on his ribs.

`The look Hermione gave him was as if he was scum, and clearly she thought he was at that point. She cast silencio silently and after watching him speak silently for a few moments they both left him, alone and tied up in the dark damp cellar.

Payback.

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I know its short! But I'm already working on the next chapter, I'm sure if you reviewed it would help my creative juices flow :) the only foreseeable reason that I might not have it up in the next few days is if fanfiction doesn't let me log in again :'( bad fanfiction! So you have to review quickly! Go on :) clicky clicky with the button!


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